Some city, Porto. Set high on the banks of the mighty Douro river, it is easy to imagine its citizens have a long-standing relationship with drama. Even so, by anyone's standards the climax experienced at the Estadio das Antas on Wednesday night was theatre at its most compelling. That it was unscripted and improvised meant that the final curtain fell only when the final curtain fell. When it did the audience and participants left exhausted but enthralled. Well, at least the Portuguese did. For the Dutch it was different. They were left pondering the philosophical question: when is a draw not a draw? When is a draw not only a draw but also a victory and a defeat?
The answer is Wednesday night in Porto. Holland, leading 2-0 with seven minutes to go, lost 2-2. Portugal had won, yet the result was a draw.
Louis van Gaal, being Louis van Gaal, replied cryptically when it was put to him. "It's never unfair when the result is there," he said to a somewhat bewildered press gang. Next question: who are favourites to win the group now? "Portugal," he said. Short and unsweet.
In a way van Gaal's curtness was understandable. For 82 minutes a Netherlands team, tightly organised by himself, had outplayed Portugal. By selecting Patrick Kluivert, the game's best player, to start behind Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, the Dutch manager offered Portugal a puzzle they never solved.
Tactically van Gaal had restored his credibility after the shellshock of last October's defeat by the Portuguese in Rotterdam. Portugal's aggression had appeared to surprise Holland that night, but on Wednesday it was the opposite. At one stage in the second half, with Portugal unable to find any sort of rhythm, Luis Figo led a pack of complaints to the referee about Holland's physical approach.
But the Netherlands' force was controlled and it was a display that justified van Gaal's statement: "We are three points behind Ireland so we have to win in Ireland. You will have seen from this game that this is possible. Well, I hope you saw this." Dublin, September 1st, will be an occasion.
Holland should have recovered their composure by then. Figo's injury-time penalty had left the Dutch players staring blankly into the rainy night sky. "We all felt like crying," said Hasselbaink. "I had tears in my eyes as I walked off the pitch. We had played such a great game. Then it all went wrong."
Hasselbaink, who had opened the scoring with an 18th-minute penalty in front of his Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri, then attributed the blame. "We have to ask ourselves how this happened. I don't think it was a penalty. The referee must have balls of iron to put the ball on the spot with 12 seconds to go." Nice turn of phrase, Jimmy.
How it happened is difficult to assess. All evening the Dutch had handled the sinuous threat of Rui Costa and Figo with care and attention. But after Pedro Pauleta had pulled one back in the 83rd minute, the Dutch kept attacking when, as Boudewijn Zenden admitted: "That was a mistake.
"We should have played safe and we didn't. We needed to be smart. Much smarter. The Ireland game is now going to be crucial for us. Psychologically, this result gives Portugal an advantage. They celebrated as if they were world champions."
That they did. An evocative stadium gave up an exhilarating noise. There was singing and dancing, players embraced, slapped backs and one of them, Fernando Couto, summed it all up: "It was a very tough match, but we can always say of this draw that it tasted like victory."
Not even the memory of Portugal's poor defending or the concession of the lead in the group could quell the smile on manager Antonio Oliveira's face. Oliveira maintained that injuries to 13 of his players was one reason why Portugal "missed everything but the result", and he viewed the situation at the top of the group thus:
"The chances for all three teams are still the same as they were at the start. It is, as you say, a three-horse race. We lost the leadership of the group tonight but our aim is still to finish first."
Portugal's next game is at Lansdowne Road on June 2nd. By then they should be three points behind the Irish, providing the Republic beat Andorra at home, and possibly behind the Dutch as well. They play Cyprus at home next month. But Portugal can take comfort from the fact that in this group it has been proven in Lisbon, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and now in Porto that home advantage is not what it used to be. As Louis van Gaal would acknowledge, international football is too complex to run on simple assumptions such as that, or such as referees don't award penalties with 12 seconds to go.
