By Brian Homewood
BASEL, Switzerland (Reuters) - Portugal will stay faithful to the philosophy that won them Euro 2016, ignoring the critics who say it is dull to watch, coach Fernando Santos said on Monday.
Santos was forced to shrug off criticism that Portugal were unattractive during the tournament in France, insisting at one point that he was happy for his team to be the "ugly duckling."
He said there would be no change in their approach when they visit Switzerland for their opening World Cup qualifier on Tuesday.
"I can leave here with a chorus of criticism because the team didn't play attractively but won and that doesn't matter to me at all, it's all relative," he told reporters, emphasising the difference between playing boring football and playing badly.
"Nobody wins playing badly," he said. "We can only beat Switzerland if we play well, and that means trying to concede zero goals when the opponents have the ball and, when it's our turn to attack, score one, two, three, four...the number of goals it's possible to score.
"Nothing has changed in our state of mind, in our convictions, our way of thinking and our determination to reach our targets," he added. "But we realise we have to keep improving, to improve our levels of efficiency, in defence and attack."
Portugal will be without record scorer Cristiano Ronaldo, who is still not fully fit after the knee injury he suffered in the first half of the Euro 2016 final against France on July 10. Switzerland, meanwhile, will be missing Xherdan Shaqiri.
"We are not going to talk about individuals. These players are not here and we'll leave it at that," said Santos.
