Portugal have beaten Angola 1-0 in their Group D encounter in Frankfurt on Sunday, with Portugal being forced to work hard by the Palancas Negras, who are making their debut in the World Cup Finals.

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 the teams went into half-time 1-0 up.

The second half carried on in much the same wein, with Portugal with the majority of the pressure and with neither side making anything of the chances they carved.

In the 60th minute, Portugal took off one their biggest playmakers, Cristiano Ronaldo for Costinha, which dulled their attack.

Their veteran captain Luis Figo played an excellent match throughout, with some excellent passing moves, but neither he, or his teammates could find the finishing touches.

The Portuguese fans started getting restless as their team started to pass the ball between themselves at the back with 15 minutes still to go, which sparked the team to push their attack slightly further up the pitch, but Angola failed to take advantage of the extra attacking space.

With the score still 1-0 and with only minutes to go, Angola tried to muster a late flourish to find an equaliser and they pressed hard, forcing the Portugal keeper into making some decent saves.

A fingertip save in injury-time from the Palancas Negras keeper denied Portugal a second goal from a spectacular 35-yard strike by substitute Maniche.

That was the last shot of the game, with Portugal having to work hard for their slender win against the World Cup debutantes, who will surely be encouraged by their defeat.