Paul Watson makes his final preparation for flying out to Portugal

 Day 8: Thursday 17 June 2004

Hopefully nothing much will happen in the last five or ten minutes of the match.  We should have it sewn up by then, take off the strikers and play deep.  I will have a radio with me; there must be some tellies at the airport.  If only I were a twat, I could then watch the whole game on my mobile.  You can now get a radio installed into your teeth, you hear voices in your head. 

Spit at him, break his knee, the ref won't see.  I hope Totti sorts himself out, he should do his time, then come back and grace football again... 

I am all ready to go, just the Euros to get.  The Post Office does the best deal. Don't use a card, some banks say it is Euro transaction and charge you for it.  Doesn't seem right to me.  The woman in front of me bought £23.04 worth of Australian Dollars.  Why?

Applied for a contract in the North West; if get this I can stay for the extra weekend.  No news last night, from Euro2004 about my Russia Greece ticket, although on a positive note I am now getting junk mail from Ticketmaster.  This morning a reply, the confirmation number at the time of booking is enough.  They have taken 8 days not to send me a confirmation e.mail. 

The 'pink' is the Financial Times, no mate, the 'pink' is the Footie Echo.  According to Uefa there have been 1,301 cancellations and 355 no-shows from the press for the first four games.  What did I say on Day 1?  The cameras don't really show it, but they take up a significant part of the stadium.  I will take some photos. 

Greece v Spain.  The Greeks just seem to manage to do enough, could even win the group.  It seems strange to me, but they look as though they could grind out a result against anyone.  We nearly lost to them at OT in the World Cup 2002 qualifiers.  Great free kick by Beckham, but very dodgy dive by Sheringham.  Some excellent defending kept Spain out.  Spain are playing well, creating lots of chances.  However they have only scored two goals.  A lot of these games have been really tight.  Being profligate in front of goal could be there downfall.

Russia v Portugal.  2-0 as you all know, the early goal helped them.  Ronaldo looked good again; Portugal don't really look convincing.  There is something missing.  Russia stayed in the game right until the end, but they are out.  I can't believe the defender (No 18) didn't track back to prevent Rui Costa's goal.  It was very strange to see all those empty seats.

Tonight, lose and we are out.  Which would be pathetic.  Last time in 2000, I really wasn't that bothered when we were knocked out.  We had a squad of old players, we didn't play well enough to deserve anything (it was nice to beat the Germans).  This time, as in 1996, we have a squad capable of winning the competition.  We can beat the best, if we perform and take our chances.  We should do it this afternoon.  French should roll over the Croats, but you never know in football. 

Accommodation allocated on arrival — will it be Albufeira ?

Paul Watson