Portugal have gone into half-time 1-0 up against World Cup debutantes Angola in their Group D encounter in Frankfurt on Sunday.

Pauleta almost opened the scoring in the 1st minute, with what would have been one of the fastest goals ever scored in a World Cup Finals, but his shot rolled across the face of the goal.

But, just three minutes later, he hit the back of the net with a neat build-up from the Portuguese.

Real Madrid's Luis Figo broke through the Angolan defence, pulling the ball back to Pauleta for a routine tap-in from close range.

This didn’t deflate the World Cup debutantes, who worked hard to try to get an equalising goal.

For the Angolan Palancas Negras, Ze Kalanga and the captain, Akwa both had shots go high – Akwa’s being a spectacular overhead kick that drew applause from both sets of fans - but the Portuguese had the majority of the chances in the first-half even though their advantage in possession was not that great.

Portugal almost doubled their lead when Manchester United midfielder Cristian Ronaldo hit the crossbar in the 35th minute, but the ball flew away to safety.

Angola’s Andre forced a fine save from Portugal keeper Joao Ricardo, who then managed to clear the resulting corner and the Portuguese pressed on.

The Angolan keeper was also severely tested with another shot from Ronaldo from close-range, but parried away excellently and Portugal went into half-time 1-0 up.

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