Portugal overturn the old order

Portugal 3: Conceicao 35, 54, 71.

Germay 0

Referee: D Jol (Holland).

Bookings: Portugal - Beto. Germany - Ballack, Jancker, Deisler, Rink.

The old order is in disarray and a proud footballing nation is openly embarrassed after Germany suffered the indignity of failing to make the knockout stages of the European Championship finals.

At times, it was less a matter of conquest as capitulation in Rotterdam last evening as they shrivelled and ultimately perished at the feet of a Portuguese team lacking several of their big-name players.

Smaller countries like Ireland may take some solace from the fact that occasionally even the super powers stumble on lean times. But for the 20,000 German supporters who had arrived in the hope of witnessing a great escape, this massive mismatch was almost too painful to watch.

In a stark reversal of the classical roles, it was Portugal who strode the scene like emperors, taunting and teasing bedraggled opposition in a manner which would have been unthinkable a decade ago.

And for Sergio Conceicao, a player who has frequently toiled in the slipstream of more flamboyant players, there was the supreme satisfaction of twisting the steel, not just once but thrice, with the first hat-trick of the current championship.

With qualification already assured, manager Humberto Coelho could indulge his sense of the outrageous by leaving established players of the quality of Rui Costa, Luis Figo, Joao Pinto and Nuno Gomes out of his starting line up.

Normally, that would have been tantamount to football suicide but, even as the talented quartet watched and admired, Conceicao moved centre stage to make his bid for sporting immortality.

An element of good fortune surrounded his opening goal in the 38th minute, but there was no doubting either the quality or the significance of his subsequent strikes which drove the Germans to their knees in the second half.

After an interval of 34 years, the days of Eusebio and his talented class of 1966 have been revisited. Now, who is to say that a nation often reviled for failing to match some outstanding performances at club level with a similar degree of flair at international level, cannot build on this performance?

Players of the calibre of Fernando Couto, Pauleta and Paulo Sousa strolled through the game with an elegance that frequently bordered on arrogance. But in the end the night and the glory belonged to Conceicao.

Sadly, there was little or nothing to recommend Germany's performance. In terms of commitment, they scarcely deserved the derisory cheers which accompanied their exit from the pitch, but old campaigners like Lothar Matthaus and Mehmet Scholl knew better than most that on the night, they had been rolled over. The setting almost certainly matched the significance of the occasion, with thousands of rival supporters turning the stadium into a theatre of song some 90 minutes before the kick off.

If the Germans had come to preside over a requiem, it wasn't altogether obvious in the opening phase of play as they pushed on in search of the early goal which might have sapped at least some of the threat from a dangerous mission.

Pedro Espinha, positively tiny by goalkeeping standards, did well to take the ball off Carsten Jancker's head after only four minutes and later Dietmar Hamann's persistence created a chance for Sebastien Deisler.

For all the frenetic skirmishing however, little of note emanated from midfield, where too often Scholl's artful footwork and the sheer strength of Hamann was wasted by the ill-timed final delivery.

That was until the 30th minute when, in moments reminiscent of a glorious past, Jancker and Scholl combined to send Marco Bode careering through on the left. The shot was almost worthy of the build-up but cruelly, the ball hit the base of an upright and bounced back into play.

Portugal's response was to fashion a lightning counter attack which saw Sa Pinto and Sergio Conceicao in turn miss Pauleta's inviting pass. Then, just minutes later, came that precious opening goal.

Pauleta appeared to be running out of angles when chasing a through ball down the inside left channel. But a hopeful cross was converted into a precious strike when the ball took a deflection off Marko Rehmer to give Conceicao the chance of knocking it in at the far post.

Good fortune, as much as anything, had given Conceicao his first moment of glory, but that was a description which could not be attached to the two which followed.

Seven minutes into the second half he skipped past Hamann's challenge to drive the ball at speed under Oliver Kahn's body, and the victory chants were already ringing around the stadium when he raced on to Capucho's pass to embarrass the goalkeeper further with a superb diagonal shot.