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Porto’s Brazilian-born midfielder Deco — Anderson Luis de Souza — will, along with Real Madrid’s Luis Figo, be expected ...

Porto’s Brazilian-born midfielder Deco — Anderson Luis de Souza — will, along with Real Madrid’s Luis Figo, be expected to produce the top performances necessary for Portugal to lift its first major footballing trophy. Deco, 26, has joined the Portuguese cause, having moved to Porto from SC Salgueiros in the 1998/1999 season. He was granted Portuguese citizenship in March 2003 and made his debut in the same month — scoring in a 2-1 victory over his native Brazil in Porto.

His initial selection had provoked a storm in Portugal as Deco had obtained his citizenship under a clause in the law that allows citizenship for people capable of ‘‘performing relevant services’’ to the country.

Although he only scored once in his debut season, Deco’s career has been on a steady upward curve ever since.

Wiltord strikes

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Forward Sylvain Wiltord struck twice to inspire France to a 4-0 victory over Andorra on Friday in a warm-up match. France are now unbeaten in 17 matches and face Ukraine in Paris next week in their last match before Euro 2004.

Scorers: Sylvain Wiltord (45th, 55th), Louis Saha 68th, Steve Marlet 74th

Scolari’s Bingo hit

Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has credited regular sessions of bingo playing for helping his team develop team spirit. “The locker room atmosphere is very good,” he told a news conference. “A few days ago all the players had fun playing bingo. Today there will be another bingo with really good prizes.”

Win, draw incentive

UEFA will give extra financial rewards for wins and draws. The teams will be awarded a fixed payment of 7.5 million Swiss francs. An extra 1 million Swiss francs will be paid out for every victory and 500,000 for every draw in the group phase. If the eventual champions won all three group games they would pick up total prize money of 27.5 million Swiss francs.

Desailly booed again

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France coach Jacques Santini has expressed his sadness after fans booed captain Marcel Desailly during a friendly international against Andorra. Supporters were unhappy with Desailly’s behaviour during Chelsea’s Champions League semi-final against Monaco. Desailly elbowed Monaco’s Fernando Morientes and applauded when Andrea Zikos was red carded.

The police said that Kumar, a resident of Turbhe MIDC in Navi Mumbai, was driving his concrete mixer truck when it collided with an SUV.

‘Unleashed aggressive dog to stop probe’: Sacked IAS officer Puja Khedkar’s mother booked

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The mother of a dismissed IAS officer, Manorama Khedkar, has been booked by the police for obstructing an investigation and aiding suspects involved in a road rage incident. The incident occurred on September 13 and involved two men who allegedly kidnapped a truck helper.

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