World Cup 2010 / Editor / 06 November 2009 / Leave a comment

With Portugal's play-off against Bosnia looming, betting.betfair.com went to chat to 51-cap former Portugal midfielder Paulo Sousa, now in charge at Swansea. We asked him about Portugal's chances, life without Cristiano Ronaldo and Welsh derbies.

"Well I think the whole of football wants to see such a great player at the World Cup, but mostly we want to see him there for ourselves! We all like to see great football, and Ronaldo always brings us great football on the pitch."

Paulo, it's good to meet you, and first of all there's a big game for you this weekend.

That's right, against Cardiff, I understand exactly how important this is to our supporters. It's the same rivalry in every game like this when you have a derby. Winning is important for the fans and the city, because if you win when they go back to work they come in with more motivation, they work much more. Happiness is very important for the energy of a human being!

What made you so keen to take this job after you left Queens Park Rangers?

I wanted to stay in England. I believe it's the best environment for a manager, for a player, for the fans. In my view the Championship is the fifth best league in the world. There are normally full stadiums, a lot of passion and emotion.

Roberto Martinez was a tough act to follow.

Yes, but I don't have problems with this kind of challenge, first of all because I'm very confident in myself - I believe in my work and in my quality. I also believe in my players, and sometimes it takes longer to be stronger as a team, but we are beginning to get the results for the belief to grow

Now let's talk about Portugal. You worked with Carlos Queiroz at the Portuguese FA. Tell us about him.

He was a big influence on me as a player, he helped me to develop both in the national team and then when he was my club coach at Sporting Lisbon. He has vision, he has knowledge, and he built a style in Portugal in my time and helped me so much. He gives players the right mentality.

So how has he found himself having to rely on the play-offs to get to the World Cup?

You have to understand it was not an easy moment for Carlos to take over the national team. It is always difficult when you have a change of methods, but he also had to deal with a change of "generations". When you have to deal with that it sometimes takes longer to get success. To improve you need to win games from the beginning to give confidence to everyone and to set out the things you want much quicker, and that didn't happen for him.

Why not?

Well, at the beginning of the campaign when we played Denmark we lost at home; but if you saw the match we could have won by four or five to zero. It was a game where nothing quite happened the right way, and then after losing that game it brought difficulties. There were three 0-0 draws, and from there in my opinion only somebody with the knowledge and quality of Carlos could have helped us to be this close to qualifying at all. Now he has the opportunity to complete the job.

Can he do it?

I think so, but it won't be easy because Bosnia have one of the best attacks of all the national teams. They scored nearly as many goals as Spain in the group games, and Edin Dzeko has scored nine times himself. He will be a danger. We will need a strong mentality.

You won't have Cristiano Ronaldo.

That's very bad news for us, but a team must always be about more than one player.

Do you agree with Sir Alex Ferguson that he's the best player in the world?

Well I think the whole of football wants to see such a great player at the World Cup, but mostly we want to see him there for ourselves! We all like to see great football, and Ronaldo always brings us great football on the pitch. He gives things you can't expect, something different, something nice, something important for the team and for himself, and you never know when it will come.

Is there enough without him?

It's something I understand Carlos wants to improve, to not depend on just one player, but with one player like Ronaldo it's very difficult not to depend on him. I just hope that we can be strong enough as a team and I'm sure it will be possible.

Thanks for your time, we've a free £50 bet for a favourite charity.

The club does a lot of work for Cancer Research Wales which can be the charity, and I'll back Portugal to win their home game against Bosnia at odds of [1.39].