Injured Vieira ruled out

Patrick Vieira has lost his fight to be fit for tonight's quarter-final against Greece.

The Arsenal captain - who is a key player for France as they try to defend their title in Portugal - had to pull out because of a hamstring injury.

His place will be taken by Olivier Dacourt, who will form the central axis with Chelsea's Claude Makelele with Robert Pires keeping his place in the left side of midfield.

But there will be no place in the line-up for Marcel Desailly.

It was thought the Chelsea central defender would be the beneficiary from Mikael Silvestre's drastic lapses of concentration, which have so far cost France two penalties and a goal after the Manchester United defender carelessly gave the ball away against Switzerland.

Manager Jacques Santini has made only one change from the back four that started on Monday in the game France won 3-1. Bayern Munich defender Willy Sagnol has been ruled out for the rest of the tournament with a broken arm and William Gallas has shaken off an ankle injury and will take over at right back.

Santini has also decided to stick with his strike force of Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet even though the pair - while outstanding as individuals - do not seem to gel as a pairing.

Indeed, when Trezeguet was substituted against Switzerland in Coimbra, Henry scored his first goals of the tournament.