New Zealand's English coach Anthony Hudson reacts during the 2017 Confederations Cup group A football match between New Zealand and Portugal at the Saint Petersburg Stadium in Saint Petersburg on June 24, 2017. (AFP / Mladen ANTONOV)
Saint Petersburg: New Zealand coach Anthony Hudson has predicted that European champions Portugal could go all the way to lift the Confederations Cup.
On Saturday, Cristiano Ronaldo scored his second goal of the tournament while his team-mates Bernardo Silva, Andre Silva and Nani also netted as Portugal hammered New Zealand 4-0 to reach the semi-finals of the eight-team event.
Earlier in the tournament, Portugal relied on a spectacular Ronaldo header to beat hosts Russia 1-0 following a 2-2 draw against South American giants Mexico who are the other side in Group A to reach the semi-finals.
"Look, the Germans have not brought their first-choice squad to Russia though the world champions still have a quality side. On the other hand, Portugal have arrived with all their star players," Hudson said after the 4-0 drubbing.
"What we saw today was Ronaldo and Pepe lending their experience to their team-mates. They could have rested these players and still beaten us," Hudson said.
"I think Portugal are one of the favourites to win the Confederations Cup," he added.
"I see no reason why they can't lift this trophy," Hudson said.
"We started the game at a high level but then the Portuguese scored two quick goals to put pressure on us," Hudson said.
"We went back in the game and that is a difficult situation. The most important thing was we did not give up," he added.
"This applies to all tournaments we have played in: our players struggled from the beginning to the end. We created about eight scoring chances in the match against one of the strongest teams in the world. We could have played a more defensive game but did not," Hudson said.
"Most of our players could play at a higher level. Our team is not afraid of rivals and we did not feel overwhelmed," he said.
New Zealand, also known as All Whites, also lost their matches against Russia and Mexico to exit the tournament without a win.
Hudson thanked Russian football fans for applauding his team players after their loss against Portugal.
"I was pleased to hear the applause from the fans for this team. I would say that my players still felt bad for the poor result," Hudson said.
"This is an expression of respect from the fans. We can only thank the fans for such a gesture. There are no words to describe how we appreciate it. Still, we came here for positive results.
When you do not get the results, even such warm gestures can't comfort you after a loss," he said.
"We put pressure on the teams. We fought and did not fear the teams we faced and therefore it is difficult for us to accept defeat. We were confident that we could achieve a better result. I think we have a good future. We have good potential. We are moving in the right direction," Hudson said.
Meanwhile Andre Silva of Portugal said Pepe's two yellow cards may have forced out the ace midfieder out of the semi-finals but the inform European champions have enough adequate replacements.
"We are not worried about that. We have sufficient players to replace Pepe," Silva said after Portugal's convincing 4-0 win on Saturday.
It was Portugal's second successive win of the tournament.
"We were able to contain our rivals and then score quickly to put pressure on them," Silva said.
"New Zealand are a fighting unit. But we kept applying pressure. After the first goal that we scored, the game was in our hands.
"We are happy to win," Silva said.
"We feel all teams are strong so we have no preference to play any particular side in the semi-finals."
