YESTERDAY, you felt the tournament really started. As ever, though, in these competitions, it's been a cat and mouse affair over the opening round of matches. Because of the league format, the fear factor has already taken hold.

A more worrying factor has been the surfeit of yellow cards - 30 in four games, and two red cards. Some of the tackles merited cautions, but many were handed out for innocuous challenges and it means quite a number of players are going to be suspended from the third game onwards.

It's got to the stage now where unless the odds are heavily stacked in your favour you can't make a tackle, which is a shame.

Portugal and Denmark rose above this and gave us a good game despite, rather than because of, the refereeing. Portugal were the best team we've seen so far. Going forward their movement in midfield and up front was excellent, as was their first touch and skill. They may have a soft centre defensively, but they've been the one team that has played without fear so far.

Their manager was always trying to win the game, and I think they would have won but for the brilliance of Schmeichel, who is beginning to look invincible in one on ones.

The Danes, as we predicted, have Schmeichel and the two Laudrups. Apart from that they are ordinary. But their manager is a shrewdie who knows the limitations of the team and plays accordingly.

I thought the Germans were very comfortable in what was ostensibly a very poor game. I was surprised by the Czechs because I thought they had a distinct lack of ambition, especially after going down to two quality goals, and they were quality goals.

The Germans start tournaments quite slowly but, no matter whether they play well or play badly, they always seem to put themselves into positions where they're capable of winning games, which is exactly what they did.

All of which re affirms the impression that their preparation is absolutely spot on. It's almost as though when they come to these competitions they have blinkers on. They Just know they have to go away, they have to do a job and prepare themselves properly - and invariably they do it. This was a singularly unspectacular performance, but it was such a good way for them to start.

I've no doubt that the Czech Republic will finish bottom of the group. That said, this win will have sent out the warning signs to Russia and also to Italy.

Despite an even more fastidious and less consistent refereeing performance, I thought both Spain and Bulgaria went at it from the first whistle.

Bulgaria have the classic counter attacking system for international football. They let Stoitchkov drift anywhere and you just know that when push comes to shove and Bulgaria score it's invariably going to involve him.

The only thing I would say about both those teams is that defensively I don't know whether they had enough. Of the two, I'd give Spain a better chance of going on to the second phase. They play vibrant football. The movement of the front players was very good, as it was all through the team, and they played through midfield nicely. If they had taken their chances in the first half they would have won the game.

Looking back on Saturday, England were positive in the first half. They got the goal and it looked as if it would be a fairytale once Shearer scored. Then they stopped playing. Also, I have serious doubts about Gascoigne lasting games. In fact, if you play four in mid field, I think Gascoigne is almost a liability. So, I think Venables may well play five in midfield, including both Gascoigne and Platt, against Scotland, leaving out one of the central defenders.

Another thing about the opening game, I cannot understand for the life of me why Venables took McManaman off. He looked the one English player who might do something different.

Another thing about England is that, Ince apart, there's nobody to win the ball back. This is another reason why I think Venables might play five in midfield, then just by sheer weight of numbers England will have more chance of winning the ball back.

The Swiss were very beatable. Some of their football was quite pretty, but it was peripheral. Looking at the game overall, they were two very poor teams.

But by hook or by crook I think England will beat Scotland and qualify, but only because Scotland are very, very poor. I can't see Scotland scoring, which is their underlying problem.