Focus will be on thriving middlemen

Portugal can attribute their success to the presence of the `Golden Generation’, the deadly duo of Luis Figo and Ruis Costa in the midfield Portugal’s strongest area; and it gives the maroon and green side a definite cutting edge on the eve of their semifinal clash with France.

Coach Humberto Coelho has been using five midfielders in the 4-3-2-1 formation. And the moustachied coach, no doubt, has been successfull in his experiment so far. Moreover, it were his medios who were scoring until Benfica striker Nuno Gomes made his presence felt with his double strike against Turkey in the quarterfinal. ut Coelho must be only too aware that a whirlwind start to a tournament far from gurantees success.

True, France won all their group matches in Euro ’84 and went on to win the championship itself. However, a brief examination of other tournaments in which sides have enjoyed firecracker starts reveal that sometimes the flames that burn brightly early on, end up burning half as long.

Mexico, World Cup 1986: A swaggering Denmark side strutted through the group stages with ease (demolished former champions Uruguay 6-1), delighting neutrals with the style termed `Danish Dynamite’. Ensconced in the second round they raced ahead of Spain only to capitulate 5-1, their dreams of World Cup glory shattered beyond repair. So far Portugal have succeeded in bringing both artistry and goals to Euro 2000, and in doing so have probably become the romantic neutrals’ favourites to win the tournament. But footballing history is littered with the corpses of aesthetically pleasing sides who fell at the final hurdle.

Portugal would do well to remember the examples of Hungary in 1954 and The Netherlands in 1974 World Cups as they take on reigning world champions France in the first semifinal on Wednesday. And remember France have an Algerian-born, bald-headed genius called Zinedine Zidane who is certainly not going to vacate his territory the midfield to Figo and his other midfield colleagues.

If Portugal boasts of their midfield, the same can be said of the reigning world champions. It were the midfielders, and Zizou in particular, who led the Les Blues to their maiden World Cup triumph two years back.

Modern football is all about controlling the crucial midfield; and both the teams Portugal and France have a couple of brilliant medios led by Figo and Zidane respectively. So one can expect a fierce battle between these two mercurial midfield generals.