Pepe says Portugal must learn from their mistakes after fighting back from three goals down to draw 3-3 with Israel.
Bruno Alves opened the scoring for the Seleccao, but goals from Tomer Hemed and Eden Ben Basat put the home side 3-1 in front, before Helder Postiga and Fabio Coentrao saved the day for the visitors.
"The problem was not just the defensive aspect,” the defender told abola.pt.
"We left spaces between the middle and the wings, but we must learn from mistakes so that will not happen in the next game.
"We wanted to win, we are sad, we had the conditions. The most important thing is that we are in the competition to fight.
Portugal are third in Group F, with Pepe and his international team-mates facing an uphill battle to qualify for World Cup 2014, but the 30-year-old is determined to do all that he can to achieve that goal.
"I am part of the Portuguese national team and want to be at the World Cup. We will do everything to be there - now we must learn from mistakes."
Singaporean director Anthony Chen described as “surreal” the 15-minute standing ovation that followed the world premiere of his debut feature film "Ilo Ilo" at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday. Though the ending of the premiere couldn’t have been more perfect, the 29-year-old Chen said the beginning was quite “nerve-wrecking” as it was marred by technical glitches.