Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari heaped praise on his players after they battled to a 1-0 victory against Holland in the second round of the World Cup.

The Portuguese have struggled to make an impact at recent World Cups, but now have a real chance of reaching at least the semi-final after setting up a last eight meeting with an England side which has struggled for form in Germany.

Portugal's passage in to the quarter-finals was not an easy one, as not only did they have to deal with a lively Dutch side, they were also troubled by a referee who sent off two players from each team.

"For many years Portugal hasn't seen a team dignify the name of Portugal, fight for Portugal, doing so much for Portugal," said Scolari.

"We have to congratulate our team, our athletes. All I can think about today is this heroic, marvellous victory."

Midfielder Maniche, who scored the winner after just 23 minutes, backed the coach's view.

"I think we won because we are a great group, a group of talented players, a group of friends too," said Maniche.

"Overall we deserved to win. This is a tasty win for Portugal."

The goalscorer admitted to being puzzled by the performance of Russian referee Valentin Ivanov, who sent off four players and booked eight more in a game which had only 25 fouls.

Maniche added: "The referee did not contribute to a good show of football. I don't think this match was so violent to have as many sendings off as we had."

Holland coach Marco van Basten was furious with the referee and claimed the official's display was at least in part responsible for the Oranje's first competitive defeat under his charge.

"It is a pity the referee made a mess of this game," said Van Basten.

"It was an open and very spectacular game but we could not score a goal.

"I think in the second half we only played 20 or 25 minutes of football. There was little playing time with all the injuries and the players going down all over the place.

"What is also regrettable is that the refereeing has such an influence on such an important match. They stopped the game from being a pretty spectacle."