Striking past of a Pompey hero

Although he turned down the opportunity to join Milan when they were indisputably the biggest club in the world, Hughes has been fortunate to learn from the very best.

As a youngster at Atalanta he trained on adjacent pitches to such luminaries as Christian Vieri and Claudio Caniggia and watched Arigo Sacchi's double European Cup winners from the stands of the San Siro.

The 24-year-old considers himself "100 per cent Scottish" but learned his football where calcio is king.

He said: "I was born in Glasgow but have never lived there. My mum and dad were living in Milan when I was expected but because she didn't speak the language she flew back to Glasgow to give birth.

"As soon as we were fit enough to fly we went back to Milan and I've tried to take the best from both footballing cultures.

"Many of my former team-mates are playing with Atalanta in Serie B and there were some great players in the first team when I was there, the likes of Filippo Inzaghi, Vieri and Caniggia.

"My heroes as a kid were the great Milan side of the 1990s. My brother and I had season tickets but after a while we used to cheer on the opposition because they never used to lose.

"They're definitely the best team I've ever seen with the three Dutch players [Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard and Marco van Basten], [Franco] Baresi and [Paolo] Maldini.

"Watching them play the offside trap under Sacchi was incredible. I was a left-back at the time and watching the world's best left-back every fortnight was a real privilege."

Hughes's privileged education continued at Highbury after he had impressed Brady while playing for Scotland Under-17s.

After finishing his A-Levels, he was at a loose end waiting for his 19th birthday to sign his first professional contract at Atalanta, so he jumped at the chance to join Arsenal.

He said: "I was there the season Arsenal won the Double and it was great for my education. I played alongside all their stars in training and tried to pick up things from each of them - the leadership of Tony Adams, the determination of Patrick Vieira, the enthusiasm of Ian Wright.

"I learnt a lot but it was always going to be difficult to break into the first team. The midfield was particularly strong with Vieira, Emmanuel Petit, Marc Overmars and Ray Parlour, so I took the opportunity to go on loan to Bournemouth and ended up signing."

Hughes lists Arsenal among his favourite teams alongside Milan and Celtic but such sentiments will be forgotten tomorrow.

This season's FA Cup has already provided the highlight of his career with his second-half winner against Liverpool in the previous round. But a goal against the Gunners would eclipse even that sumptuous strike.

He said: "Arsenal are the team to beat and as long as they only win the Premiership and Champions League I'll be happy. They deserve to be one of the favourites to win the Champions League and our job is to deny them the Treble.

"I'd like to see them win the other two trophies but they can't have the FA Cup this year.

"It won't be easy for them at Fratton Park. We definitely feel we can beat them and take heart from our draw at Highbury, when only a dodgy penalty denied us three points.

"A lot was made of the [Robert] Pires incident and everyone realised it shouldn't have been a penalty. These things even themselves out over the course of a season and maybe we're due a dodgy one."