Portugal's troubles in the World Cup qualifiers have shown that they will need a lot more than an on-song Cristiano Ronaldo to mount a serious challenge in Brazil. Although they can beat any team on their day, Portugal are prone to unexplained lapses and can be chronically wasteful in attack.

Portugal reached Brazil in style with Ronaldo netting all their goals over the two legs of a memorable 4-2 aggregate playoff win over Sweden. But that performance masked a difficult qualification campaign in which they were held to unexpected draws by Northern Ireland and Israel and forced into the drama of a two-leg playoff after losing Group F's top spot to Russia. It could have been even worse had Ronaldo not dug them out of a hole in the match away to Northern Ireland, scoring a second-half hat-trick in a 4-2 win after they had trailed 2-1 and been reduced to 10 men.

“We certainly had an inconsistent campaign. If that wasn't the case, we wouldn't have had to contest a playoff,” said coach Paulo Bento. “Even though we lost one of the games against Russia, we put in two good performances, but there were three other matches in which we didn't play so well.” Worryingly for Portugal, Ronaldo has suffered some nagging minor injuries in the run-up to the World Cup and was rested for their friendly against Greece in Lisbon and Portugal's training sessions after complaining of muscular pain in his left thigh.

After years of basing their game around a playmaker, firstly Rui Costa and then Deco, Portugal have changed their style to try and get the best out of Ronaldo. Although they traditionally play a possession game, under Bento they have started to mix this with long passes into space for Ronaldo and Nani to run on to. After Ronaldo, midfielder Joao Moutinho has become the most influential player in the team. The Monaco player is part of a fluid three-man midfield triangle which dictates the pace, tirelessly recovering balls and delivering pinpoint passes.

Joao Pereira and Fabio Coentrao are two energetic fullbacks who like to burst forward and, in Pepe and Bruno Alves, they have a fiery, intense pair of centre backs, sometimes too much so. A big concern is the centre forward position where Helder Postiga and Hugo Almeida have been less than clinical. The highly unpredictable Ricardo Quaresma would have been an interesting alternative, but was overlooked by Bento, the third World Cup in a row where he has been in contention for a place and has missed out.

There is plenty of experience in the side with Raul Meireles, Bruno Alves, Postiga, Pepe and Pereira all over 30 and one of the criticisms aimed at Bento is that he has been too conservative in his team selections. For a small country, Portugal have had an exceptional record at big tournaments over the past decade, reaching the final at Euro 2004, the semi-finals at the 2006 World Cup, the quarter-finals of Euro 2008 and the semi-finals of Euro 2012.

Despite this, they have not always pleased the neutrals and ultimately they have not won anything either, losing to Greece in the 2004 final in their own Lisbon backyard when Brazilian Luiz Felipe Scolari was their coach.

But one thing that is in their favour this time is that other teams are regarded as favourites and, despite their old colonial connection with Brazil and a shared language, there will be very little pressure on them from the home fans. Modern-day Brazilians have more in common with the culture of the U.S. rather than a distant European relation whose influence in South America has diminished over the decades since Portugal became economic, cultural and legal partners of the European Union.

There has often been a rough edge to Portugal's play and they were involved in a notorious game against the Netherlands in the 2006 World Cup which produced 16 yellow cards and four reds. Portugal will certainly want to leave a better impression than they did in South Africa when they were involved in petulant goalless draws against Ivory Coast and Brazil. They bowed out after a negative performance in a 1-0 defeat to Spain, marred by an incident at the end when Ronaldo appeared to spit at a television camera. — Reuters

Joao Moutinho

Moutinho has become key player under Paulo Bento. Holding player often praised for consistency and tactical awareness. Combines hard work and tough tackling with excellent distribution and sets rhythm in transitions from defence to attack. Joined Monaco from Porto this season. 

Pepe

Intense and battle-hardened defender who can play as holding midfielder. Has suffered recurring injuries, but remains quick and intimidating figure who covers a lot of ground and is influential in squad. Has been involved in several unsavoury and much-publicised incidents. 

Uruguay striker Luis Suarez will be going to the World Cup finals after a scare less than two weeks ago when he aggravated an injury and needed knee cartilage surgery. Coach Oscar Tabarez named the Liverpool player, who was top scorer with 31 goals in the Premier League last season, in his 23-man squad on Saturday for the tournament starting on June 12.

Suarez, England’s Footballer of the Year, had suffered a knock during Liverpool’s last league match and Uruguay team doctors found he needed keyhole surgery.

He missed 1-0 win over Northern Ireland in a World Cup warm-up game at the Centenario and also sat out last friendly against Slovenia at the same stadium. Uruguay kick off their Group D campaign against Costa Rica on June 14 before facing fellow former world champions England and Italy. It is unclear how soon Suarez will be available. There were no surprises in the squad issued by the Uruguayan FA (AUF) with Tabarez keeping faith with 15 veterans who helped Uruguay finish fourth at the South Africa finals in 2010. — Reuters

Edinson Cavani

Edinson Cavani forms a lethal combo upfront with Suarez. If the two get going, they could pose serious threat to the best team in the competition. He however may not be half as effective if his partner, Suarez, fail to recover in time.

Group D
Uruguay, Costa RICA, eNGLAND , iTALY

Uruguay World ranking: 7

Best finish: Champions 1930, 1950

Last 3 World Cup performances: Group stage in 2002, did not qualify in 2006, and finished creditable fourth in 2010

Main threat

They are placed in the Group of Death which has three former champions in England and Italy besides themselves. It’s going to be tough to emerge from this group.

2014 international results: Beat Slovenia 2-0

The Hague, June 7
Akashdeep Singh scored two superb second half goals to help India claim a 3-2 win over Asian rivals Malaysia here today. The result gave India their first win of the tournament and took their tally to four points, moving them up to fourth place in the standings. Malaysia sit at the bottom of the pool and remain without a point.

India dominated the first half, pressing their 13th ranked opponents deep into their own territory for long periods and creating a number of decent scoring opportunities before the opening goal arrived in the 14th minute.

Jasjeet Singh Kular was the scorer, rifling the ball against the backboard following an Indian penalty corner that didn't go to plan but certainly proved to be effective.

The Malaysian players looked to be a step slower than an India team that enjoyed long periods of possession and could easily have been three or four goals up were it not for some top class goal-keeping from Kumar Subramaniam. The reflex save he produced following a dazzling run and shot from India captain Sardar Singh was up there with his best blocks of the tournament.

Malaysia almost got an equaliser against the run of play when Tengku Ahmad saw his backhand effort turned around the post by Indian keeper PR Sreejesh.

The equaliser came from a penalty corner in the 46th minute, with Razie Abdul Rahim's powerful drag-flick finding its way into the Indian goal via a defenders' stick.

However, India reasserted their authority on the match with two field goals from Akashdeep. Both efforts were truly world class, with a brilliant angled deflection being followed by a glorious chip over the keeper after some superb build-up play from Sardar.

The final ten minutes were played at a blistering pace, as the action breathlessly shifted from one end to the other. Malaysia's Marhan Jalil made things interesting with an open play strike in the 61st minute, although India held on. — Agencies

TODAY’S MATCHES

New Zealand vs Germany (2 PM)
Korea vs Argentina (4.30PM)
South Africa vs Netherlands (11.15PM)

Paris, June 7
This is their 42nd clash, so there will be few surprises for the world's top two players Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic when they face each other over the net in the French Open final on Sunday.

Both are looking to cement their positions among the greats. Nadal is gunning to be the first man to win five straight Paris titles to take his total to nine. Djokovic wants to complete his career grand slam by bagging the only major to elude him.

They each have the strokes and the stamina. It will come down to who can control their on-court aggression and handle the pressure better in front of the 15,000 crowd on Philippe Chatrier.

"He has the pressure to win for the first time. I have the pressure that I want to win and the motivation that I want to win the ninth," Spaniard Nadal said after demolishing Andy Murray in the semifinals.

"I'm going to go on court with the same motivation than him. I don't know if the same pressure than him. Probably we are in different situations."

The Serbian second seed said he was trying not to get carried away by the stress of the occasion, after a wobble in the semis allowed Latvia's Ernests Gulbis to take a set off him before he regained his near metronomic consistency. "Of course pressure is there. Expectations are there. They are always present when you are playing on this level," he said. — Reuters

Paris, June 7
Maria Sharapova claimed her second French Open title when she floored Romanian fourth seed Simona Halep 6-4 6-7(5) 6-4 after a marathon encounter in Saturday's final. Sharapova claimed her fifth grand slam title after Wimbledon 2004, the 2006 US Open, the 2008 Australian Open and her first Roland Garros title two years ago.

Halep, who had not lost a set entering the final, put up a great fight but bowed out after three hours and two minutes — the longest women's final in Paris since 1996. "This is the toughest grand slam final I have ever played," Sharapova said. "I can't believe it, seven or eight years ago I would not have thought that I would win more Roland Garros than any other grand slam.” — Reuters

BRIEFLY

Patel says BCCI pressurised Aus, Eng boards for revamp
Hyderabad :The BCCI had threatened to form a parallel world cricket body before the England and Australian boards agreed to the controversial restructuring of the ICC and decided to give a lion's share of revenue to the Indian board, its secretary Sanjay Patel said today. "We got criticised by many in the media and lot of them did not agree but we told them that if India is not getting its proper due then India might be forced to form a second ICC of its own," Patel said. "England and Australia agreed and from June 27th onwards the new structure will come into place. All 10 full members have signed the resolution.