Gelsenkirchen, July 2 :

Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari isn’t content just taking Portugal to the World Cup semi-finals. He wants to make history and bring the trophy home to the country of barely 10 million people.

Scolari, who coached Brazil to World Cup glory in 2002, is on track to become the

only coach to win World Cups with different teams and has France next up after Portugal beat England 3-1 on penalties on Saturday.

“It was important to reach the final in 2004 and now the semi-final but we aspire to go even higher,” said the charismatic Big Phil, as he is known, who puts his successful coaching philosophy down to being popular with the players.

“Its been more difficult to reach a semi-final with Portugal than the final with Brazil because there are only 10 million inhabitants in Portugal compared to 180 million in Brazil. Also 50 per cent of the players in Portugal are foreigners. Brazils traditions make certain games easier to win too. But now we have a chance to create history for Portugal.”

Portugal had only ever been to three World Cups before this year’s finals and failed to get past the first round in two of them. Their greatest ever triumph was making the semi-finals in 1966.

Scolari’s mix of youth and experience made certain of at least matching that by sending England back home in a controversy-packed quarter-final here. Manchester United striker Cristiano Ronaldo scored the decisive spot-kick to shatter England’s dreams and ensure Sven-Goran Eriksson’s five-year reign ended on a losing note.

Portugal had beaten England on penalties at the quarter-final stage of Euro 2004 and again proved to have the mental edge in Gelsenkirchen, although they failed to capitalise on England being down to 10 men from the 62nd minute.

Wayne Rooney was sent off for stamping, but the Portugese couldn’t make the

decisive breakthrough despite a sustained onslaught which created the better chances in extra time.

It was their cooler heads though that prevailed in the penalty shoot out with Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher all failing to find the target in a hothouse atmosphere.

The Brazilian Scolari, who is on a 12-match unbeaten run in the World Cup finals, hailed his latest team’s fighting spirit that saw them emerge victorious. “It proved once again that the players as a group want to fight for each other. We are progressing because the players have added a new warrior spirit to what they already had which was quality,” he said.

Portugal have four days off before lining up against France in Munich on Wednesday after a Thierry Henry goal sent the French through against defending champions Brazil in an upset result.

Saturday’s results set up a repeat of the ill-tempered Euro 2000 semi-final, which France won, and Scolari knows it will be another tough match. A consolation is the free time in the lead up so that key players Luis Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo can work on their fitness with both still feeling the effects of injuries.