The 26-year-old right back, who has been one of their most impressive players and has kept Chelsea's Paolo Ferreira out of the starting line-up as the Euro 2004 finalists have conceded just one goal in five matches, added he was confident they could beat the French on Wednesday.

"We obviously want to get to the final and to win it," said Miguel, who plays his club football with Spanish giants Valencia.

"We are playing to win, and we hope to continue with that attitude on Wednesday.

"We are ready for the confrontation, which will be a tough one.

"With all due respect for France, we believe we can win it.

"It is an important day for us, the team and the Portuguese people.

"We do not want to disappoint them or us. If we can leave the pitch with a clear conscience, that we did all we could to beat France, that will be enough.

"However, I really do believe we can progress to the final. We are going to get there!"

Miguel admitted that while the team were delighted to have reached this stage - beating England in the quarterfinals on penalties - they were not averse to feeling anxious ahead of a rematch of their explosive Euro 2000 semi-final, which the French won with a controversial extra-time penalty.

"There are mixed emotions in the camp.

"We always believed that it was possible, that it would be tough but achievable.

"We have worked hard to get here. In Euro 2004 (hosted by Portugal), we put together a good campaign.

"In the final, everybody thought we would win but Greece surprised us.

"That was very painful for the players and for the Portuguese people. But, here we knew that one could also achieve good things.

"We have shown that Euro 2004 was not a one-off."

Miguel expressed perhaps the vain hope that France's talismanic playmaker Zinedine Zidane would not be capable at the age of 34 to repeat his man of the match performance from the 1-0 win over Brazil in the quarterfinals.

"Zidane is Zidane!

"It is not be chance that he was considered the best player in the world and is still among the best even now.

"His touch on the ball is like nobody else's. In this World Cup he has improved in every match and against Brazil he was the difference.

"I hope that against Portugal it will not be the case.

"I fervently pray that he will have an off day against us.

"He has played really well recently. I do not know if he is on that form how to stop Zidane.

"We just have to hope he will be less effective. But our coach (Luiz Felipe Scolari) has surely thought of something to stop Zidane.

"But it is not just a one man show, France has other players and it would be fatal to focus entirely on him and then another one of their side proves to be the match winner."