England fans may outnumber locals

Attracting foreign visitors may have been one of the key reasons for spending more than a billion euro on staging Euro 2004 in the first place, but the Portuguese would surely have breathed a collective sigh of relief on Monday night had England been eliminated from this European Championship and brought the tournament's most numerous legion of foreign fans home with them.

Instead, the locals found themselves competing yesterday in the scramble for tickets to Thursday night's quarter-final at the Stadium of Light where, if England's three previous games are anything to go by, the venue will feel like just another stopping off point for a team that has been shifting its home games around since the rebuilding of Wembley began a couple of years back.

The mood in Portugal's capital has generally been good over the past 10 days, and in the wake of Monday's win over Croatia rival supporters engaged in fairly good natured banter about their respective sides' prospects in the eagerly anticipated quarter-final game.

"We will be favourites because you have 50,000 supporters here and we have 10 million, that will be the difference," said one local with a smile to a couple of satisfied looking English supporters shortly after the 4-2 victory.

"The problem is," replied one of the English chirpily, "none of your lot will be able to get inside the ground."

The locals actually start the campaign to pack out the Stadium of Light in a much stronger position than their rivals, but visiting supporters could, indeed, end up obtaining huge numbers of tickets thanks to their willingness to pay hugely inflated prices.

While tickets for the tournament's opening game between the hosts and Greece in Porto were changing hands for roughly face value last Saturday week, those for England's matches have been fetching a minimum of €200, with the a seat for the French game setting those who could not obtain it through official channels back by up to three times that on the black market.

With advance sales having accounted for the bulk of tickets for every game at this tournament, the English and Portuguese associations will receive just 6,000 each for their clash, and there were queues forming from early yesterday at the host federation's offices where 500 seats are due to go on open sale this morning.

Many of those distributed in earlier rounds of sales will already have changed hands, and how many more are sold on, at a considerable profit, during the next couple of days is a matter of considerable concern for the organising committee.

Their attempts at segregation have already crumbled in previous games involving Sven Goran Eriksson's men, with an estimated 40,000 of the team's supporters having made it into the Croatia game. The fear is that with the English one win away from reaching a major championship semi-final for only the third time since their World Cup success of 1966, demand will only grow.

Somewhat more accustomed to success of late, meanwhile, the French will hope that Thierry Henry's first international goals of 2004 mark a turning point in his tournament. Jacques Santini's reorganised side finished strongly against the Swiss on Monday, but the coach needs his most gifted striker to recapture his best form if his side are to successfully defend their European title.

Santini, though, has a problem over which he can exert a little more influence at the back, where the performances of Marcel Desailly and Mikael Silvestre continue to leave the coach looking uncertain as to how best to proceed.

So far the 25-year-old Manchester United player has been preferred as Lilian Thuram's partner in central defence in two of the three games, while he played at left back in the third. His contribution, however, has consisted of two penalties given away and some degree of culpability for every one of the goals that the team has conceded.

Santini must also plan without defender Willy Sagnol, who broke his left arm during their 3-1 win over Switzerland and will miss the rest of the tournament.

In the circumstances, Santini could be forgiven for wishing he had brought Philippe Mexes, the 22-year-old centre back who has just agreed a move from Auxerre to Roma, along to this tournament.

But in his absence there is really only William Gallas to fall back upon, and the Chelsea defender, used exclusively at right back so far, looks doubtful for Friday night's game after limping off late on in the win over the Swiss.

Whatever the French do at the back, they should really be good enough to ease past the Greeks. Otto Rehhagel has done well to turn the side he took over three years ago into an effective defensive unit that is adept at catching opponents on the counter attack. The suspicion is, however, that subconsciously they may settle for what they have achieved already and lose the biggest game in the nation's history rather tamely.

If so, the French may make it to the last four without producing a really first-class display.