Dortmund, July 4:

England’s conquerors Portugal will welcome back midfielder duo Costinha and Deco from suspension for Wednesday’s semi-final match against France in Munich. France coach Raymond Dom-enech is set to keep faith in the team that beat Spain and Brazil.

Costinha and Deco’s return for Portugal means coach Luiz Felipe Scolari will return to his first-choice XI in a 4-5-1 formation.

Following Zinedine Zidane’s majestic display for France against Brazil, Costinha could be in a man-marking role on the veteran midfielder. Portugal have no injury worries, although Petit is suspended for the match.

Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo will continue on the wing after FIFA confirmed that he would not be investigated for his part in Wayne Rooney’s sending-off as Portugal beat England on penalties in the quarter-final.

Portugal and France have met on 21 previous occasions. France have won 15 and Portugal five. These two teams have only met twice competitively, both times in the semi-finals of a Euro Championship. In 1984, France won 3-2 in extra time with Michel Platini scoring the winner in the 119th minute. At Euro 2000, France were again victorious by a 2-1 margin, thanks to a golden goal by Zinedine Zidane in the 117th minute. On both occasions, France went on to win the trophy.

Costinha, Luis Figo and Nuno Gomes are the only players in the Portuguese squad who also played against France in 2000. Gomes was banned for seven months for his involvement in a melee at the end of the match.

The French squad contains seven players involved in that clash six years ago — goalkeeper Fabien Barthez, Lilian Thuram, Patrick Vieira, Zinedine Zidane, Sylvain Wiltord, Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet.

Youri Djorkaeff, Wiltord, Mikael Silvestre and Henry all got on the score sheet when these teams last faced each other — France winning a friendly 4-0 on April 25, 2001. That took France’s winning run against Portugal to seven matches, since the Portuguese beat them 2-0 in 1975.

Portugal have reached the World Cup semi-finals for the second time and the first time in 40 years. In 1966 they were knocked out by eventual winners England, and finished third. Portugal are now unbeaten in 17 competitive matches. Their last competitive defeat dates back to the final of Euro 2004 when they lost to Greece (1-0).

France are taking part in the World Cup for the 12th time. Their best performance came in 1998 when they were crowned the world champions beating Brazil in their own country.

This is their 50th World Cup match.

In Germany, France face the third consecutive opponent who navigated the group phase with a perfect record, following Spain and Brazil. France have conceded two goals in five matches at this tournament — Portugal have leaked just one goal.

Portugal are the only semi-finalists led by a foreign coach. The World Cup has never been won by a team with a foreign coach.

Luiz Felipe Scolari is attempting to become the first to win the competition with two different nations, after leading Brazil to the title in 2002. He’s undefeated in all the 12 of his matches at the World Cup.