Cape Town - Portugal today blasted North Korea out of the World Cup with a 7-nil drubbing, notching up one of the biggest whitewashes in the history of the competition.
Portugal's win tops the 4-nil triumph by Germany over Australia last week and is also one of the biggest whitewashes since the 1974 match in West Germany, when Yugoslavia beat Zaire 9-nil at Park Stadium, Gelsenkirchen - an all time record for the highest goal difference in a World Cup match.
North Korea started well in the first half, making several dashes at the goals, and looked a very different side to the one that faced Brazil last Tuesday, when the Asian team clung tightly to a defensive strategy.
The Chollimas missed several chances at goal and ended the first half 1-nil down, with Portugal's Raul Meireles opening the scoring in the 29th minute.
But it was in the second half that the Iberian team let loose, sending cheering fans into a ballistic stupor as they swept past the North Koreans in a goal frenzy which saw them netting three goals in just 10 minutes.
First was Simao, who slipped the ball past North Korean goalkeeper Ri Myong Guk in the 53rd minute.
Three minutes later Hugo Almeida headed the ball in to take the score to 3-nil and when fans were barely recovering from screaming their lungs out - Tiago, seven minutes later, added his name to the Iberian team's scoring log by knocking a goal in too.
The action didn't stop there, when Liedson scored off a pass from Duda in the closing minutes of the game, with the world's most expensive player Cristiano Ronaldo taking it to 6-0.
Two minutes later Tiago took the final score to 7-nil in the 89th minute.
Despite hundreds of open seats at the start of today's match, the game proved to be one of the loudest in Cape Town so far, with fans answering one another at opposite ends of the stadium with rhythmic vuvuzela blasts.
"It's historical because it's such a huge score," said an excited Portuguese fan, Brito Ferreira from Lisbon.
Ferreira said he was pleasantly "astonished" about Cape Town because it shared a similar climate to that of Portugal.
Man of the match, Ronaldo, thanked the fans and commented that his goal was "funny", but added "I'm happy, a goal is a goal".
Portugal's last encounter with North Korea took place in 1966 in Liverpool and it was a very different match when the Iberians had to claw their way back from being three-nil down to beat the Asian team 5-3.
North Korea's coach Kim Jong Hun said the team would have to rethink its strategy in the final group game against the Ivory Coast.
"As a coach I think it was my fault for not playing the right strategy, that's why we conceded so many goals," he said.
Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz commended the clean way the North Koreans played today and said his colleague should not be deterred "as these things happen".
"I hope that North Korea can at least score one point in this tournament, with their performance so far," said Queiroz.
