Santos made six changes to the team that beat Uruguay on Monday, taking into account the risk of yellow card suspension in the next round, for which Portugal had already qualified before kick-off against South Korea.
Santos said, “We are unhappy. We wanted to go on with the wins, we wanted to play good football to boost our confidence.”
“We’re not going to lose confidence, there’s confidence in this group, but it’s a warning, a serious warning. Maybe some positive things can come from this game.”
He congratulated his predecessor as Portugal manager, Paulo Bento, who is now in charge of South Korea.
He said, “I just hugged her. I’m unhappy, she’s happy. I didn’t help anything, but friends are friends, business aside.”
Portugal, by finishing top of Group H, are likely to avoid Brazil, the likely winners of Group G along with Serbia, Switzerland or possibly Cameroon in the first knockout round.