A piece of Portugal in Brixton

First they insisted on ordering an extra bottle of Sagres beer. Then they explained why strings of rosary beads nestle next to novelty soccer ballpoint pens, ashtrays and statuettes in the gift shop next door. 'Football is a religion in our country,' is how Antonio summed it up as he and his friends polished off their plates of spicy pork and blushing prawns. 'We hope,' he joked 'that God will be on our side.'

Here is one bit of London where the punters won't be sticking up for Shearer, Adams and Seaman on Monday evening when England's Euro 2000 campaign gets going in Eindhoven. At O Cantinho de Portugal, a bar and restaurant at the south end of Stockwell Road, the atmosphere will be 'crazy as usual' on big football nights according to Teresa da Silva, who runs the place with her husband Manuel.

As well as Antonio's party, some 50 more of her compatriots were clustered around the televisions at O Cantinho, oohing and aahing through a vital fixture in the Portuguese league season: Sporting Club versus Benfica, the Lisbon derby beamed live by satellite into this tiny piece of Portugal that prospers a short walk from Brixton Tube. Anticipation has been building throughout the afternoon. In neighbouring shops and cafe-bars there were men in replica team shirts, and there was a sweepstake pinned up behind the counter at the friendly bar Sintra.

Tucked away just off the main street, even the local bakery Peroli do Atlantico displayed a football-shaped cake in its window. This was a big, big game. For Sporting it offered the chance to get one hand on the Portuguese league trophy they had not won for 18 years. For Benfica it was a chance to stop them, and so hand the advantage to Porto, from the northern city of Oporto, the third of Portugal's three big clubs. 'Some of us have longed for this since we were children,' stressed Antonio, a Sporting fan. 'Even if they win it we are still the biggest team,' cut in a Benfica man. 'We are the Manchester United of Portuguese football.'

Clearly local rivalries have survived the passage from Iberia. But all these will be suspended four days from now, not only in Stockwell but also just a spit away on the South Lambeth Road, and throughout the capital's other Portuguese niches: in and around Goldborne Road, for example, and in a corner of Camden Town not far from Mornington Crescent Tube. Each 'Little Portugal' may lack the scale of, say, Clerkenwell's 'Little Italy', but Portuguese passion for the blessed ball game is every bit as strong, and the present national team gives good cause for optimism. They have an excellent recent record and some very handy players: Joao Pinto, Rui Costa and the brilliant Luis Figo, a star of Barcelona's recent European campaign. They are also long overdue some success against the English, both at international and club level. The O Cantinho contingent ruefully agree, recalling past events with bittersweet precision, even though half of them weren't born at the time.

If it's any consolation, the more notable Portuguese reverses against English opposition have helped give the Portuguese game a special place in English football folk history. It was the Portuguese press who announced George Best's elevation to pop-star status in 1966, christening him El Beatle after the young winger inspired Manchester United to eclipse Benfica at the Stadium of Light in a European Cup quarter-final. Following this, in the summer of the same year, several Benfica players represented their country here in the World Cup, making it to a Wembley semi-final against the eventual winners England.

Their great star was Eusebio, a striker of dazzling pace and power who'd been recruited by Benfica as a boy from Mozambique. Against England, despite scoring from a penalty, he was famously neutralised by the abrasive Nobby Stiles, the gap-toothed anti-hero provided by United for the national effort. In defeat, though, Eusebio secured his country's place in English affections, leaving the field mopping his tears with his shirt, but tracking down England's other United star Bobby Charlton later in the day to present him with a bottle of wine. Two years later, Eusebio was again a Wembley loser, this time with Benfica, and, as previously, at the hands of the Manchester club, Best Charlton, Stiles and all. In the process, United became the first English team to win the European Cup. And yet Portuguese generosity once more made its mark. One of the match's most enduring images is of Eusebio shaking the hand of Alex Stepney seconds after the United goalkeeper had thwarted him with a marvellous save.

So much for history. Setting aside their differences - Sporting lost 1-0 - the customers at O Cantinho anticipate Monday's clash with a mixture of realism and hope: realism because they know their national team has never scaled the peaks it reached in Eusebio's heyday, and hope because, as always with football fans whose side don't often win things, it's the stuff that springs eternal. Just ask the English.

O Cantinho De Portugal
137 Stockwell Road, SW9 9TN