Portugal riding high

And so it has come to pass. It's not enough for Scolari to have them conquering Europe - on Sunday, Portugal will face Greece or the Czech Republic in the final - because he now thinks they can beat the world too and this was just his idiosyncratic way of revealing that he's signed a contract which should now see him lead the team into the World Cup in Germany in 2006.

Talk of destiny seems to have taken over completely here now. Scolari talked of the "magical date", June 30, on which he won the World Cup for Brazil two years ago. Veteran Luis Figo talked of 30 June 1991, when he and his " golden generation" babies became world junior champions here in Lisbon. Yet June 30, 2004, now topped the lot.

It was the day when the last Galactico in town awoke to succeed where a certain other garlanded No7 of Real Madrid fame had singularly failed.

Figo still hadn't quite been forgiven for his big sulk after being substituted against England but now all was forgotten after his tormenting of the Dutch defence so consistently all night won him the man-of-the-match award.

"He had a great game and deserves everything he gets because he has given everything to this team," said defender Jorge Andrade, whose unfortunate own goal to drag the score back to 2-1 really proved Portugal's only scare on a night. Yet another headed goal by Ronaldo and one unreal strike from Maniche wasn't the true measure of their superiority.

Andrade would not speculate whether Sunday might be the last stand for the "golden generation" trio of Figo, Rui Costa and Fernando Couto.

"But if it is, they have the chance to go out doing something great for our country," he added.

It felt like the end of an era for the Dutch too as Marc Overmars and Jaap Stam made their final international appearances and coach Dick Advocaat reckoned he would make a decision on his own future next week.

The night finished with the poignant sight of captain Frank de Boer, who missed out last night because of the injury sustained in the quarter-final, hobbling across the pitch on crutches.

Holland's most capped player with 112 could only reflect sadly on how four times he'd been involved with a team which had lost in the semi-final.

"I'd rather have had only 20 caps and actually won something," he said wistfully. He thinks Holland's new generation will win something, led by Ruud van Nistelrooy and Arjen Robben, but the Chelsea new boy's irritating theatrics last night during his worst performance of the tournament, saw him quite outshone by Ronaldo, whose only mistake was to strip off his shirt after his goal to get booked.

"I've seen things in Portugal which I never imagined could happen," said Scolari.

What, like a bare chested, twinkle-toed 19-year-old helping dance Portugal all the way to the European title?