In the aftermath of the 0-0 draw with Sweden at the Dragao in Porto,  Portugal‘s 31-year-old midfielder, Deco, defended the team’s performance after a night of missed opportunities by the national team.

The 0-0 result is the third successive draw in Portugal’s World Cup campaign following the initial 4-0 win against Malta and defeat by an injury-time Daniel Jensen goal against Denmark which Deco felt was down to “details”.

“I think we had an excellent first game against Denmark, but some details prevented us from winning,” he told TVI24.

It was a similar case for the Portuguese team’s latest outing against Sweden.

Early dominance by Sweden saw a fierce shot struck by Holmen go wide of the Portuguese goal seemingly un-noticed.

The home team then mounted a series of attacks that bore no fruit. Portugal’s first real attempt came after Simão was forced into the middle of the field to find Pepe, who struck a wild volley just wide of the goal.

The Swedish defence was resolute in preventing the home side in finding width and their midfielders were ready to sit back and defend, which they did for long periods of the match.

Even the Portuguese talisman Cristiano Ronaldo failed to get any clean shots away in the first half, and when Portugal did find space in amongst the Swedish back four it was Simao who could not convert the opportunity from inside the penalty area.

A Swedish free-kick had the home defence on alert as a header narrowly missed the far corner of the goal after poor marking by the Portuguese.

If the first half performance was not frustrating enough for the ex-Manchester United coach Carlos Queiroz, then second-half misses from Danny Gomes, who was played in by sublimely by Tiago, and Deco’s powerful low drive pushed out by Isaksson after his late addition, would really add to the disappointment.

The Chelsea player’s appearance in the second half was down to missing training recently after recovering from injury.

“I tried to recover, but it was ten days without training, so it is natural that the coach has taken another approach.”

The Portuguese national team now have five games to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Deco remains confident that the team still have a good opportunity to qualifying.

“We have five more games if we get into the play-offs… It is difficult to explain what happens, we have a new coach, new players, there is a natural period of adjustment. We need to win, that is what counts, but I think we provided a good display…”

Jonathan Ellis, Goal