Diary / Jonathan Wilson / 19 June 2008 / 1 Comments

Speculation ahead of tonight's quarter-final is hardly total football but Jonathan Wilson's mouth is already watering over the prospect of an attacking feast on Saturday.

He wasn't in one of the much-mocked designated fun zones, but Luiz Felipe Scolari was having a great time in the pre-match press-conference yesterday. He seems an utterly reformed character these days: at the World Cup he was surly and aggressive; but in this tournament he has been playful, joking along with the British media. You'd say he was trying to butter them up ahead of his move to Chelsea, if only he didn't have such a reputation for being indifferent to the press.

Yesterday, it was all gurning and grinning, mugging to the cameras. When asked about Cristiano Ronaldo - and it seems that at least 80 per cent of the questions at this tournament have been about the Portuguese winger - he rolled his eyes exaggeratedly, but then answered dutifully. Later, asked about Michael Ballack and the possibility one of his future players could scupper his golden farewell from Portugal, he held up a finger of apology and began scrabbling in his pockets. Eventually he pulled out a sheet of paper and read from it a list of the tallest German players and their heights. "Number 17, 1m92. Number 20, 1m86. Number 9, 1m88. My players are all 1m15, 1m20. I have a lot to worry about apart from Ballack."

He didn't seem concerned, though, despite a further barrage of Ronaldo questions. With no England in the competition, it is as though English media outlets can think of nothing else to talk about. Sky's Gary Cotterill has probably been the most Ronaldo-obsessed. Earlier this week he arrived, panting and red-faced just as Edwin van der Sar and Marco van Basten were wrapping up a press-conference. "Please," he puffed. "Just one question. I've travelled five and a half hours for this." The Dutch press officer shrugged and agreed. "Edwin," he said. "What do you think about Cristiano Ron-" at which, Van der Sar and Van Basten stood up and left.

A couple of days later, Cotterill got to Lausanne on time, seized the microphone for the second question and asked Ruud van Nistelrooy whether he would encourage Ronaldo to follow the same path as he had from Old Trafford to the Bernabeu. "Tomorrow's game is indeed very important," said a deadpan Van Nistelrooy. "We know we are qualified for the quarter-finals...."

Ronaldo questions aside, Scolari's main concern could be the pitch at the St Jakob Stadion. It has been wholly relaid since the group stage,
26 trucks bringing turf from the Netherlands, and although the Portugal manager insisted he had faith in the abilities of Uefa's experts, the forward Nuno Gomes was rather less confident. "To be honest," he said, "I didn't like what I saw." Still, he too, speaking excellent English, cut an impressively confident figure.

Ronaldo has been rather less relaxed. Two days ago, after finishing on the losing side in a training match, he reacted with such petulance that Petit presented "the big kid" with a lollipop. "But at least I thrashed him at table-tennis," came Ronaldo's reply, which presumably was said without ironic intent.

After Basel, it was back to Bern for another meal in Lorenzini's, the plush Italian restaurant with a large television that has rapidly become the English media's main hang-out in the Swiss capital.

Russia's demolition of Sweden was mightily impressive, but how much more so it might have been had they had Pavel Pogrebnyak rather than Roman Pavlyuchenko up front to take some more of those chances.

Given their flexibility and movement - underlined by the fact that both goals were laid on by full-backs - we wondered, could it be that it is Guus Hiddink's side rather than Marco van Basten's Dutch who are the true carriers of Total Football's torch?

One of the most annoying compliments paid to this Netherlands side is that they play in the Total Football tradition; they may be just as exciting to watch, but tactically they are utterly different. Russia, though, with their high offside line and obsession with creativity from wide as well as through Andrei Arshavin through the middle, seem genuine purveyors of the tradition. Saturday's quarter-final between the two promises to be a feast to match Lorenzini's tagliatelle.

Tags: Andrei Arshavin, Cristian Ronaldo, Euro 2008 Betting, Felipe Scolari, Germany, Gus Hiddink, Michael Ballack, Netherlands, Pavel Pogrebnyak, Portugal, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Russia, Swede