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

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"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 for 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 threated 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."

Portugal will play Greece or the Czech Republic in Sunday's final.