The cream will rise to the top

AFTER a brief pause to draw breath and, as the first day of the quarter-finals dawns, it’s strange to think back to June 14 in Leipzig and recall Spain running riot against the Ukraine in their opening game of Group H.

That was only a fortnight ago but it seems like a whole World Cup away.

A 4-0 drubbing suggested that Andriy Shevchenko and company would find little glory in a tournament which, by contrast, Spain’s blazing tyros looked supremely well equipped to ignite. Well, rejuvenated France comprehensively hosed down that little theory, while Ukraine went on to make the last eight by, quite literally, penalising Switzerland’s chronic aversion to being put on the spot. (A curious postscript: the Swiss depart as the only team not to have conceded a single goal from play).

For their pleasantly astonished fans, Ukraine’s World Cup is already a kind of triumph — doubtless a 1990 College Green-style reception awaits the team when they get back to Kiev. Which, by my reckoning, should be no later than tomorrow, should Italy prove as impregnable defensively as the Swiss but a whole lot more productive up front when they meet the eastern Europeans in Hamburg this evening.

Certainly, Sheva will not come up against a more complete defender in international football than Italian captain Fabio Cannavaro, whose comprehensive shackling of Mark Viduka in his team’s defeat of Australia was the most admirable feature of Italy’s otherwise less than convincing display. Marcello Lippi will need no reminding that it’s at the other end of the pitch where the Italians will need to be just as clinical tonight.

Not for the first time, a nation will look to the Azzurri to dispel the dark clouds which have enveloped Italian football before and during this tournament. It’s doubtful that the corruption scandal has been a factor in Italy’s underwhelming performances so far, but the impact of the shocking news from home about Gianluca Pessotto is much more difficult to gauge.

Clearly, the alarming consequences of the apparent suicide attempt of someone who is both a friend and former colleague of many of the team will play heavily on their minds, although in the way that sports people often cope with these things, it may be that they will redouble their efforts to “win it for him”.

One thing is for sure: it behoves us all – especially the media — to sharpen our sense of perspective in the light of the distressing news from Turin. Whatever happens from now on in the World Cup, no last-minute own goal, missed penalty or wrongheaded refereeing decision will merit the description “tragic” — as if it ever should. Once again we are reminded in the most painful way that football, for all its drama, is not a matter of life and death. But, of course, it still isn’t “only a game” — for proof, just canvass the opinion of any one of the millions of Germans and Argentinians whose prospects of a day to remember, or a day to try to forget, balance on the knife-edge of at least 90 minutes of action here in Berlin this afternoon.

This is the big one, a clash of styles and cultures which promises all kinds of excitement and fascination. Argentina’s thrashing of Serbia and Montenegro, and the winning combination of style and steel with which they finally saw off Mexico, makes them many people’s favourites to win the competition. At the very least we’re entitled to expect more moments of rapture today from a side which has given us both the individual and team goals of the tournament.

But, pushed all the way by the Mexicans, Argentina can expect an even more searching examination in Munich from a German team whose commitment to all-out attack makes them the most dangerous kind of opposition. Jurgen Klinsmann’s team simply don’t do cagey. But that same galloping play down the flanks and through the middle also leaves their creaky rearguard open to the subtle probing of an Argentina team which has not yet been surpassed in this tournament for the fluency and imagination of its short, zippy, passing game. With both sides able to call on strikers who can be lethal in front of goal, the contest in the middle of the park could tilt the game either way.

For Argentina, Riquelme is a number 10 in the classic mould, a playmaker who can dictate the whole tempo of their attacking game – but a water-carrier he is not, and his reluctance to do the dirty work of closing down and tracking back, could allow the likes of Ballack and Frings to make merry from distance against the Argentine defence.

Argentina may be closer to the purists’ vision of how the World Cup should be won, but with an entire nation practically down on the pitch with them this afternoon, I think the prevailing force will be with Germany. Which would mean that it would fall to Brazil to fly the flag for South America in the semi-finals if, as I expect, they raise their game to another level against France in Frankfurt tomorrow night. The story of the French renaissance has been one of the most surprising and inspiring of the tournament so far, as the grand old men of Les Bleus rediscovered their heart and soul — hell, their very raison d’etre — against the Spanish. And while it was disappointing to see Spain’s young guns shoot blanks, there was every reason to relish the sight of Patrick Vieira, a cool finger to his lips, putting the objectionable Luis Aragones in his place, with a vital contribution to France’s stirring victory in Hanover on Tuesday.

Brazil can win this one tomorrow but, after shipping all kinds of flak in the group stages, it is comforting to know that World Cup 2006 is already guaranteed to leave us with a fittingly uplifting memory of one of the greatest footballers ever, Zinedine Zidane.

And so to poor old England. If the rebirth of France bordered on the miraculous, then a similar feat by England against Portugal tomorrow would require the Vatican to recognise Gelsenkirchen as a place of pilgrimage on a par with Lourdes.

The possible return to fitness of Gary Neville is the best piece of news for England since Wayne Rooney’s own Lazarus job, but nothing we have seen from the English camp so far suggests they have the reserves of spirit, ambition or leadership — never mind the form — required to make the necessary quantum leap, even against a Portuguese side missing Deco and Costinha.

Even Sven Goran Eriksson’s ‘no more Mr Nice Guy’ routine at a press conference in Baden Baden the other day, seemed more like a Spitting Image parody than the authentic rage of a cornered manager. One was reminded of Denis Healy’s famous riposte after an attack on him in the House of Commons by Geoffrey Howe: “It was like being savaged by a dead sheep.”

Well, to paraphrase Richard Nixon, the English press won’t have Sven to kick around any more after tomorrow, as Portugal can feel confident in joining Brazil, Germany and Italy in the semi-finals of the World Cup.