Portugal fired by self-belief

Post-match reaction: Hardly surprisingly, it was an obviously bouyant Felipe Scolari who came out to meet the press after last night's dramatic Portuguese win. Asked whether he would be looking at video of the match tonight, by way of prepartion for Portugal's forthcoming quarter final game, Portugal's coach replied: "No, I' m going home to the wife tonight, I'll have other things on my mind."

Then looking up at the press gallery, Scolari shouted cheerfully at one colleague who may well have had a bottle too many of cervia (beer), saying: "Hey, you, wake up, you'll miss all the fun" When he finally settled down to a serious analysis of the game, Scolari offered an initial bouquet to Portugal's twelth man, the wildly enthusiastic home crowd, saying: "That victory was for the Portughese people, they have given us fantastic support throughout this competition. They were lining the streets all the way to the ground today, cheering us on. This the victory of the Portughese people." Indeed, it probably was. If this was not a big game, then there never has been one in Lisbon. By half-past nine in the morning, more than 10 hours before kick-off, Portughese and Spanish fans were already warming up in downtown Lisbon, exchanging chants, scarves and good-natured banter from street to street.

At the Estadio Dr. Magalhaes Pessoa itself, known to the rest of us as Sporting Lisbon's ground, there was little doubt about the fans' favourite number, namely seven. After all, No.7 is the shirt worn at this tournament by both nations' favourite footballing son, Figo of Portugal and Raul of Spain. Everywhere you looked, there were hundreds of Rauls mixing happily with hundreds of Figos.

Perhaps in an attempt to get the nation into a winning mood, state TV spent much of the morning showing re-runs of previous clashes between Spain and Portugal. Wisely enough, the TV producer opted to ignore the last time the two had met prior to last night, a 3-0 friendly win for Spain last September.

Sensibly, the producer opted for lengthy extracts from a 1-1 draw between the two sides at the 1984 European Championships in France in 1984 as well as for some grainy shots of a 2-0 Portughese win in a 1981 friendly.

If it was a superstitious rite, it worked. Speaking afterwards, Portugal's talented midfielder (of Brazilian origin) Deco explained that there had really been nothing to worry about all along. Even after a first half performance of Portughese dominance but no goals, Deco was still confident, saying: "We knew that we had to go out there and play one hell of a first half. We deserved to score in that first half but we scored later instead.In the dressing room afterwards, we were very happy but not relieved because we believe in ourselves, we were full of confidence prior to the game." As for the vanquished, Spanish coach Inaki Saez was asked about his future in charge of the national team. Showing great tact, the Spanish coach answered: "This is not the ideal moment to affront such an issue" No, indeed it was not.