Special report: 2006 FIFA World Cup

    BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari hopes to convince his Portugal team they can boldly go where no Portuguese players have gone before.

    "You are as good as my 2002 Brazil World Cup winners," Scolari told his players in the Sun.

    Scolari led homeland Brazil to World Cup glory in Japan four years ago and has been trying to instil the same confidence in the Seleccao das Quinas at this tournament.

    "My first job has been to try and help the players to see where the limits are," Scolari said. "Then I must help them to get near the limits and then to reach the limits. Once they manage to surpass the limits then they will realise there are no limits to what they can achieve."

    "Once they manage to surpass the limits, then they will realise there are no limits to what they can achieve."

    Portugal midfielders Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Figo trained separately from the rest of the squad yesterday, raising doubts over whether they would be fit to face France in tonight's World Cup semi-final.

    "Figo and Cristiano have had their own training schedule," Scolari said. "We're going to see how they go today. The probability at the moment is that Cristiano has a better chance of recovering."

    Portugal face France on Wednesday, in their first World Cup semi-final since 1966.

    "They [France] are a team of quality," said Scolari. "We have seen how they controlled the games [against Spain and Brazil], they really play as a team.

    "They are very fast and have a very good spirit in their team but we do as well. We have to work as a team and in football you never know which team is going to win. If you look at the history books then France must be favourites to win when you consider all they have achieved, but Portugal have also done some good things.

    "We will be positive and try and change the history of this fixture," said Scolari. "The favourites don't always win." Enditem

    (Agencies)