Scolari happy with Portugal's progress

Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari is pleased with his team's progress since they lost the Euro 2004 final, he said on Wednesday after they trounced fellow World Cup qualifiers Saudi Arabia.

"We've developed since Euro 2004. We had a very good (World Cup) qualification," he told a news conference. "I'm very happy with the way the team has performed in the past two years."

Hosts Portugal lost the European Championship final to unfancied Greece but while their opponents failed to reach the World Cup in Germany the Portuguese easily booked their place.

Referring to Wednesday's convincing 3-0 win over Saudi Arabia in Duesseldorf, Scolari said: "It was not as good a game for Portugal as we had expected. The pitch was not very good so we could not do many things we wanted to do."

Asked about his plans after the World Cup, Scolari insisted he had nothing to say about speculation that he might succeed Sven-Goran Eriksson as England manager.

"I work in Portugal. England is not my business," he said.