Greece in the groove

England are likely to face Greece in the quarter-finals if they can get their Euro 2004 campaign back on track with a victory against Switzerland tonight.

The Greeks, who drew 2-2 with Sven-Goran Eriksson's side in a World Cup qualifier in October 2001, culminating in a dramatic David Beckham freekick, emerged as the probable winners of Group A after a 1-1 draw with Spain.

Assuming England can recover from their defeat by France and finish second in Group B, the Greeks are likely to be waiting for them in the last eight at Lisbon's Estadio Da Luz next Thursday.

Greece's last first-round game on Sunday is against Russia, who lost 2-0 to Portugal last night after playing most of the match with 10 men. The Russians have no points from their first two games, cannot qualify and are unlikely to offer much resistance.

The real battle in that group is going to be for second place with a fascinating showdown between hosts Portugal and their fierce rivals and neighbours Spain on Sunday night.

Portugal, and UEFA, breathed a huge sigh of relief today that the hosts still have a chance of avoiding an embarrassing early exit after last night's victory at the Estadio Da Luz. Hundreds of fans celebrated the wins until the early hours of the morning in the centre of Lisbon, tooting car horns and waving flags.

But the Portuguese still have to pull off their first victory over Spain for 23 years to reach the quarter-finals, where there are likely to face France.

European football chiefs took a risk in taking the tournament to one of the continent's smaller nations whose team have struggled to live up to expectations in the past.

Knowing how important the success of the home nation is to the tournament, UEFA will also be hoping for a piece of history at the Jose Alvalade stadium in Lisbon.

Portugal have not won any of their last six matches against their larger Iberian neighbours. Their last victory was back in June 1981.

The pressure is beginning to show on the players after the 2-1 defeat by Greece in the opening match and last night's far from commanding performance against Russia, who had goalkeeper Sergei Ovchinnikov sent off at the end of the first half for a controversial handball just outside the penalty area. Luis Figo stormed out of stadium, wagging his finger aggress ively at one reporter and refusing to give interviews.

Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari knows all about the pressures of public expectation after leading his native Brazil to their 2002 World Cup triumph. He is handling the situation much better.

Asked about Portugal's poor record against Spain, he gave one of his trademark shrug of the shoulders and said: "Well, there's always a first time."

Scolari had to admit that his side allowed Russia to get back in the game in the second half after making a perfect start through a seventh-minute goal from Maniche.

The home crowd whistled at them in frustration in the second half before Portugal finally sealed the three points with a 89th-minute strike from Rui Costa.

Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo put over the cross for the second goal after a clever run. He made a big impact after coming on with 12 minutes remaining.

But Scolari admitted there was plenty of work to do before the Spain game.

He said: "I am going to take a close look at the videos of Spain's two games so far. The second half was not very good."

UEFA were due to meet today to discuss why there were hundreds of empty seats at the game and how a Russian fan managed to break security and run up to the referee to protest about the sending-off.

The enraged fan ran 50 metres across the field before police bundled him away from the tunnel area.

The incident exposed gaps in security at the Estadio Da Luz which will host the final.

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