Luiz Felipe Scolari has insisted he will wait until the end of the month before deciding his future.

The Portugal coach has been linked with a return to the Brazil job but, following his side's 1-0 World Cup semi-final defeat to France, Scolari said nothing would be decided until his contract expires on July 31.

He said: "My contract runs until the end of July, then we will see what will happen."

Portugal's World Cup run ended in controversy with Scolari blaming the referee for the defeat and having to be restrained as he harangued French players after the final whistle.

France clinched a place in Sunday's final against Italy with Zinedine Zidane scoring the only goal from the spot in the 33rd minute after Thierry Henry had been caught by Ricardo Carvalho.

Minutes later Ronaldo went down claiming he had been pushed by Willy Sagnol, but Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda waved away the claims and television replays indicated any contact had been minimal.

Scolari insisted Ronaldo should have been given a penalty, saying: "We know South American referees and that they know how to kill a game.

"All I can say is that he was right when he granted the penalty on the French player and he made a mistake when he didn't give Portugal a penalty when Cristiano Ronaldo was fouled."

On his confrontation with the French players, he added: "The French players made some absurd comments about our players and our country that I cannot repeat, insane and insulting words."

Scolari had won his previous 12 World Cup matches with Brazil and Portugal but it was unlucky 13.

The man known as 'Big Phil' had been a target for England as Sven-Goran Eriksson's successor before he ruled himself out of contention, and he has since been linked with taking over Brazil again.

Scolari added: "I don't believe that France was better than Portugal - it was a balanced match and one penalty decided it.

"We are a very small country and it is difficult to reach a World Cup final.

"Now I am going to let the players lose their sadness. They were dreaming and were nearly there, one step from the final.

"Now we have another objective, to get third place in the World Cup by playing Germany.

"I will talk with my children, my wife and those people close to me in the federation and tomorrow morning I have to be ready to change my attitude.

"What we have done was excellent. I'm proud of having this group with me."

Right-back Miguel will be a doubt for the play-off while Carvalho is suspended.