MATCH 10 REVIEW : HOSTS' CHAMPAGNE MOMENTS

Porto parade
It was not just the Portugal side parading players from the UEFA Champions League winning side. Fresh from his thunderous strike in the final of European football's premier club competition, Dmitri Alenichev lined up for Russia - and what a fascinating tussle it was between the veteran and his Porto sparring partners.

Pivotal cogs
Russia's wounds were far deeper, with Aleksandr Mostovoi's 'unethical comments' about coach Georgei Yartsev providing an unwanted sideshow to their preparations to this crucial fixture. In the opening exchanges, Alenichev, a free spirit for his country roaming between right midfield and attack, cut a forlorn figure as the Russian engine spluttered into life. This was in stark contrast to Portugal, who began with style and panache, Deco and Maniche the pivotal cogs in the wheel and Costinha the piston-like enforcer.

Maniche strike
The key moment of the first-half arrived with the game just seven minutes old when Deco's sublime ball from the right of the area was killed in an instant by Carlsberg Man of the Match Maniche, who clinically despatched his first international goal. Advantage Portugal and, although they failed to convert their 60 per cent possession into goals, the dismissal of Sergei Ovchinnikov just before the break combined with Russia's lack of cohesion left most onlookers thinking there was only one possible ending.

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