international football

Portugal have beaten Mexico 2:1 in Gelsenkirchen.
Goals from Maniche and Simao gave Portugal an early lead, with Jose Fonseca pulling one back for Mexico in the 29th minute.
Mexico started the game very swiftly, with Salcido forcing a good save by Ricardo following a good break down the left-hand side
Maniche opened the scoring with a super strike. The midfielder fed Simao on the left and then carried on with his run towards the box and followed up to collect the winger's through-pass to fire into the top corner from 18 yards.
Maniche earned a free-kick on the edge of the penalty area in the 21st minute, falling awkwardly, and the resulting free-kick was taken by the captain Luis Figo.
His shot was deflected off the wall, which seemed no further than 6 yards away, and went for a corner.
The resulting corner was remarkably handballed by the Mexican captian Rafael Marquez, to concede a bizarre penalty.
Simao stepped up to take the penalty, with Sanchez, jumping along the line to try and put Simao off, but Simao calmly smashed the ball to the keepers right to make it 2-0.
Ricardo, who had hardly seen any action since the initial Mexico attack in the opening minutes did brilliantly to save from a free-kick from Pavel Pardo, and a shot from Omar Bravo at close range, tipping the ball over the post.
The corner, beautifully delivered from Pardo, saw Jose Fonseca head the ball past Ricardo to pull a goal back for Mexico.
Maniche conceded another dangerous free-kick in the 33rd minute, which gave Mexico another corner, but Ricardo saved.
Mexico were really in the ascendancy, after the shock of going two goals down in the opening quarter of the match.
Jose Fonseca had a chance to equalise in the 38th minute, but his header went wide.
Both sides were pressing for another goal, with some good defending on both sides, with Marquez charging down the excellent Maniche, when the player was coming clear on goal.
Pavel Pardo had a long-range shot excellently saved by Ricardo, who parried away for a corner. The resulting corner saw a free-for-all in the Portuguese penalty-area, which saw Portugal struggle to avoid an equaliser.
Mexico were by far the better team early in the second-half, with lotís of pressure which eventually forced Portugal to concede a penalty in the 58th minute.
Omar Bravo stepped-up to take it, but missed the penalty badly, shooting way over the bar, to the relief of the Portuguese, and Miguel, the perpetrator of the foul.
Perez was sent-off for a second-yellow card after a very harsh decision from the referee. Perez was deemed to have dived under another challenge from Miguel in the penalty-area when there was some minimal contact.
Bravo spurned another chance in the 63rd minute, when Mexico broke through the Portugal defence, but his shot from the edge of the penalty area went well high again.
Nuno Gomes almost makes an immediate impact, but first he steps over Figo's cross when it looked better to shoot, before he turns another effort over the bar from eight yards.
Tiago had long-range effort go just-wide, but the attacks were coming in waves from Mexico, even though they were playing with ten-men.
Mexico were denied another penalty in the 73rd minute when Parreira tackled Omar Bravo from behind, but the referee gave a corner.
Mexico werenít rueing their missed penalty, pushing hard for an equaliser, but also leaving a lot of space for a Portuguese counter-attack.
Luis Boa Morte replaced the captain Luis Figo in the 80th minute, to inject some pace into the now not so confident Portugal attack and it seemed to work, with the last ten minutes being played from end-to-end with half-chances on both sides, but nothing that troubled either keeper
The game finished 2:1, with the ten-men of Mexico doing extremely well againt Portugal, but with the result in the other match in Group D, both teams are in the next round.