Luiz Felipe Scolari celebrates with (from left) Costinha, Helder Postiga and Nuno Gomes at the Jose Alvalade Stadium in Lisbon on Wednesday. (AP)

Lisbon: Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said reaching the Euro 2004 final with Portugal was a greater thrill than winning the World Cup with Brazil.

“I have to congratulate this team and my players,” he said after Portugal beat the Dutch 2-1 in Wednesday’s semi-final.

“They won the under-20 championship in 1991 in Lisbon and there are people from that time here again like Rui Costa and Luis Figo. This Portugal team has now made history and for me personally this is also a special day. It was two years ago that I won the World Cup in Brazil in Japan. For me this is a magical day.

“It’s very different. When I won the World Cup with Brazil, they had won it already four times. For the record, this is more important to me because Portugal have never been to a final before.”

“We suffered a lot, and when it was over, it was over,” said Scolari after the Dutch threatened to grab an equaliser in the dying minutes.

“We’ve got a tough team, we’ve got a competitive team. But the people that deserve the congratulations are the people, the fans, because they were fantastic.”

Scolari, meanwhile, said yes to two more years of marriage with Portugal. “I have a message for my friends,” the Brazilian announced to cheers after the match. “The president of the Portuguese football association has been talking about our marriage. I have here the ring and I say ‘yes’ to two more years.”

Scolari’s counterpart, Dick Advocaat meanwhile said the Dutch Football Association would make a statement next week about his future as coach though he already knows what he will do after his team’s defeat to Portugal. “Next week there will be a statement from the FA but I know already what I will do,” Advocaat told reporters on Wednesday. “This is a very disciplined team because reaching the semi-final with everything that happened around the Dutch team is not easy,” added Advocaat, who was heavily criticised by the Dutch media for his tactics during the tournament.

“At this moment, I’m very disappointed but we have to be realistic. Obviously, Portugal played a better first half. They had the better form, the better players. We didn’t find the right connection between our lines.

“In the second half, we took a lot of risks and didn’t play so much football. Again there was a lack of a build up from the back. I can’t explain the fear in the team but I can live with losing to a better team.

“We reached the goal we had beforehand. It’s something to reach the semi-finals. For that the team deserve compliments.”

Echoing criticism of Swedish referee Anders Frisk from Dutch striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Advocaat said: “It was very obvious every doubt there was the ball went to Portugal.

Former Dutch great Johan Cruyff agreed that the referee’s decisions had favoured Portugal. “He kept picking up on small things that always went against the Netherlands. (Winger Arjen) Robben for example couldn’t do anything right for him.”

Robben was booked for diving in the second half.

Meanwhile, The Netherlands striker Ruud van Nistelrooy said Portugal deserved their victory but he was unhappy with referee Frisk. “It’s unbelievable how the referee ruled everything in favour of Portugal. He was a real home whistler,” Van Nistelrooy told reporters. “Every 50-50 situation was for them but we cannot do anything about it.”

Van Nistelrooy said Portugal were worthy of the 1-0 halftime lead earned through Cristiano Ronaldo’s header after 26 minutes. “The 1-0 was deserved because we hardly showed our strength in attack. It was hard to get chances. It was hard to get into the game... I’m shattered,” said the striker who went into the game with four goals.

“We fought back to 2-1 but it didn’t work out the way we wanted,” said Van Nistelrooy. “They had the better chances. It’s tough losing like this but we had problems playing our own game.

Asked whether Portugal had outclassed the Dutch, Van Nistelrooy said: “It’s hard to say. We gave everything and our supporters here and at home were great... It’s a bitter pill.

“I’m really down but maybe we have to say that Portugal just played better in this match. All of us gave everything for the fans over here and at home. (Reaching) the semi-final is a good achievement but we came to reach the final.”

Midfielder Marc Overmars, who was replaced by Roy Makaay at halftime, said the Dutch had been unable to take control of the match. “What went wrong is that we never succeeded in playing our own game. There was a gap in midfield and Portugal won every second ball there.”