Branislav Ivanović kept Serbia in the hunt for a Euro 2008 place as he nullified an early goal from Simão to leave Portugal frustrated at the Alvalade stadium in Lisbon on Wednesday. The draw means Portugal are left on the third place in Group A although they still have a game in hand.

The match began in a fantastic manner for the Portuguese team in front of 45,000 roaring home fans. All appeared to be well when Simão Sabrosa put them ahead with a brilliant free-kick from 23 meters out. The free-kick resulted from a foul by Nenad Kovacevic on Cristiano Ronaldo. With a 1-0 lead in just the 11th minute of the game, Portugal began to look for opportunities to kill the game off.

Zdravko Kuzmanović replied almost immediately for Serbia, but Petit was on hand to block this effort and preserve Portugal's lead. Minutes later Nuno Gomes had a great chance to put Portugal 2-0 ahead, but his header crashed against the post, while Maniche was unable to get the rebound pas Serbia goalkeeper Vladimir Stojković.

Ronaldo had a chance to finish the game off, but was unable to convert his chances. For Serbia Kovačević could have equalized at the start of the second half, but he wasted it. However just two minutes before the close Dejan Stanković's free-kick sent Portugal defenders into a tizzy and Ivanović was able to capitalize on this and equalized much to the dismay of the home fans.

Ivica Dragutinović was red-carded late on, but the game was deadlocked and ended in a fracas as players pushed each other at the final whistle. Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari was thought to have hit out at Ivica Dragutinović.

Portugal are on the third spot in Group A with 17 points from 10 games, while Serbia are in the fourth place with 16 points from 10 matches.

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