I already admitted in the other thread that Portugal proved me wrong and the players were able to step the level of their game up. And that Holland as a "TEAM" proved me wrong too (but that's another topic). And no Mireiles is not better than De Jong, i actually think he shouldn't be starting for the Portuguese team.
Pepe is one of the best CB in the tournament and possibly in the world. Coentrão still has to improve, but he can be seen as a promising LB, not as good as Lahm, but certainly one of the best at attacking in the tournament. Our midfield is average, I give you that, but the wings are in my opinion the best, among all teams of Euro 2012.
On paper we have better player than Netherlands, and played better as a team. You rate De Jong over Raul? De Jong had a really good tournament, opened up the sea to whatever boat was trolling down the lanes ....JOKE
I still don't agree with this (there's a reason why they were favourites along with Spain and Germany before the tournament started), but you guys definitly played better as a team. As for De Jong, i don't "really" rate him, but i don't think Mireiles is better either.
The reason is simple, the Portugal National team, for whatever reason, is ALWAYS slandered, and perceived as inferior. No one was giving us a chance in the group, literally no on, like usual. But as soon as I saw Netherlands in there, along with Denmark, I knew we would be fine. Netherlands easily had the worst Defence in the group, and their potent offence was now facing some very strong defences on the other side. Not to mention, I though Denmark had a better chance than the Dutch, and they proved me right as well. Again, we used Netherlands as our punching bag and got out of the group. Let that be a lesson to you. But I suppose your saying Czech are also going to run over us.
There is only one thing worse than a sore loser and that is a bad winner who brags with the achievements of others to bolster his own confidence...
To be honest, I don't quite understand why Holland is deemed to have better players than Portugal. I would say the number is pretty similar, but people only looked to the offense (as it gets more hype) and misjudged.