England's Sven-Goran Eriksson was by far the happier of the two coaches after his side's 1-1 draw away to Euro 2004 hosts Portugal in a friendly international on Wednesday.

England's patched up defence coped admirably with Portugal's skilful forward play throughout the game and the home side needed a wonderful free kick from Pauleta 20 minutes from time to clinch a draw.

"It's always difficult playing against Portugal," said Eriksson, whose side had taken the lead at the start of the second half with a scrambled goal from defender Ledley King.

"They have a lot of pace and skill and with players like Rui Costa, Luis Figo and Simao Sabrosa in one on one situations you have to be really awake.

"We coped well with everything.

"We were playing away from home against one of the favourites for Euro 2004 and I think we did very well.

"Overall, I'm rather happy with our performance."

Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who led a free scoring Brazil side to World Cup glory in 2002, was clearly frustrated with his new team's failure to make their attacking superiority tell.

"We couldn't translate our dominance into goals," he said. "England have a very good defensive system.

"We didn't do anything special but we didn't do anything badly either.

"This game showed us where we are playing well and where we are weak."