Portugal's coach Paulo Bento has admitted that a draw against the United States on Sunday has left his team in a difficult situation, as now they are dependent on results of other teams to advance into the Round of 16 of the World Cup.
The Bento-coached side after being thrashed in the opening fixture by Germany 4-0 played a 2-2 draw against US at the Arena Amazonia. They are at the bottom of their group behind Ghana with just one point.
"It's clearly not a good result for us," Bento said. "The 2-2 doesn't put us out of the World Cup mathematically, but it does leave us in a very difficult situation. Not just because of what we'll need to do against Ghana, but also because we'll need a favourable result from the Germany-United States game."
Portugal surged into the lead as early as in the 5th minute through Nani, but Jermaine Jones (64th minute) and Clint Dempsey (81st minute) put the Americans upfront. However, star striker Cristiano Ronaldo, who rarely sparked in the match, delivered a perfect cross to Silvestre Varela, who headed home the equaliser in the injury time.
Bento praised his team for consistently pushing for the equaliser until the last minute and insisted that they will put their best foot forward in their last game against Ghana at the Estadio Nacional.
"We were unlucky late in the first half, but it was a great effort to level the match (in second-half injury time)," Bento said. "Now all we can do is to give everything in our very last game and try and make the most of the very little chance that we have left."
Meanwhile, USA's coach Jurgen Klinsmann praised his team for putting an amazing effort against Portugal after trailing by one goal early in the match. Klinsmann insisted that he is frustrated with the result, but looking forward to face Germany in the last group game.
"When you concede a goal in the last second then it's unlucky. Our boys put in an extraordinary performance," Klinsmann said. "The journey's now a little bit longer for us, but we want to beat Germany to confirm our place in the Round of 16. I'm a little frustrated with this draw, but we're going to work hard to make sure this doesn't happen again."
USA's goalkeeper Tim Howard is optimistic that his team still have a good chance of qualifying for the knockout stages.
"We're a little disappointed, but still optimistic," Howard insisted. "We thought we'd put one foot in the Round of 16, but we are where we'd aimed to be before the tournament: going into the final game with a good chance of progressing."
