World Cup Diary 21. England v Portugal - the Countdown.

There will be eleven players on each side, eleven highly trained and prepared professional athletes fighting for the right to continue to seek World Cup glory.

There can only be one winner and one loser and its entirely possible that the fates can put England out of the competition. Its a fear that has to be faced and when the players with the three lions on their chest stand in the tunnel it is fear that will to have to have been met and conquered.

Portugal are a good team, and packed with talent, capable of acheiving results and desperate to progress. England will have to match them across every position and then beat them. With all the desire that fills the squad, and with all the support that will fills the stadium, that fills the host German cities and covers all of England defeat will hurt. It has to be acknoledged - two results are always possible and there is one we definately don't want.

The players will have to face the uncertainties and difficulties and pressures of a game that in ninety minutes can shape the final adjudication on their careers, a few moments of action that can forever mark their lives.

Under a German sky the young men from England have to try and shape a thousand uncertainties into a scoreline that lets us progress. Its a big ask and somehow its only gets easier if you really believe.

Alan Ball, World Cup winner in 1966, tried to explain to his Brazil struck interviewer how the England players always feel they're the best, and how wearing the shirt of your country filled you with such pride that you felt you would always go on.

He spoke as a World Champion, as a man who in his lifetime had lifted the most prized prize of all and for once their were no comebacks, no media prattle to contradict.