Advocaat on the way from zero to hero

DICK ADVOCAAT will allow himself a wry smile as he sets about the task of preparing for a Euro 2004 semi-final showdown with Portugal.

Advocaat's Holland side will meet the hosts in Lisbon on Wednesday with a place in the final up for grabs just a few days after they were once again being branded flops.

The Dutch coach was whistled onto the training pitch by fans at his side's Albufeira training camp following the 3-2 Group D defeat by the Czech Republic after he saw them surrender a 2-0 lead.

His decision to withdraw winger Arjen Robben with Holland leading 2-1 sparked a post-mortem which continued for days, and only Germany's defeat by the Czechs, coupled with Holland's 3-0 win over Latvia, handed them their place in the last eight.

However, Advocaat returned to work yesterday morning following the excruciating penalty shoot-out victory over Sweden knowing that glory could yet come their way and that the transformation from zero to hero is already under way.

It was Robben who fired home the decisive spot-kick after 120 tense minutes at the Estadio Algarve, although the manager's reasons for protecting him earlier in the tournament after a long spell out with a hamstring injury were graphically illustrated as the 20-year-old faded alarmingly in the Portuguese heat.

Now the Dutch face the task of recharging their batteries in preparation for their date with Portugal, who have had two more days to recover from their own nail-biting victory over England.

"That will be an advantage, there's no doubt about that," said Advocaat. "But our team is very determined to get a good result on Wednesday, and the pressure is on the Portugal side, so that will help very well."

Striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, who nervelessly converted his side's first spot-kick, knows all about near-misses, and his optimism heading into the semi-final is tempered by caution.

"Playing the semi-final against the home team, that's a great challenge for every team," he said. "But I think the pressure will be on Portugal.

"They're the home nation and everybody will expect them to win it now. We hope we can do the same, but playing in Portugal against Portugal will be a difficult task

"But we have faced top-class so far as well, so I hope we can play at our best on Wednesday."

Advocaat is waiting to see whether he has defender Frank De Boer available after he limped from the field, the result of a challenge on Freddie Ljungberg half an hour into last night's game.

But in the meantime, he and his players can at least reflect on their gradual progression, and with Italy, Spain, Germany, England and France all having fallen by the wayside, dreams of Orange glory are burning bright.

That they earned their chance after finally breaking a penalty shoot-out jinx which has dogged them for 12 years is cause for further celebration, although after seeing former teammate David Beckham fail from 12 yards at the Estadio da Luz as the earth literally moved beneath his feet, van Nistelrooy admitted even he had to take a deep breath as he prepared for his moment of destiny.

The Dutchman, who has taken hundreds of penalties in normal time over the years, said: "It's definitely different. You have to come from the centre circle and you have a long way to go. If you have to walk it normally, it's very near, but then it was quite far.

"We trained on the pitch the day before the game and we checked the penalty spots. We saw the spot was very loose grass and we saw that Becks when he took it, his standing foot moved the grass so the ball moved. But there was no problem with this spot."