Portugal are in the happy position of being able to lose against Germany and still qualify from Group A.

It is an ideal opportunity for coach Humberto Coelho to experiment with formations, try out new players, or put existing players in different positions.

He also has the enviable option of resting stars like Luis Figo, Joao Pinto and Rui Costa. However, fans of the Portuguese passing game with tickets to this fixture will be sorry if none of that talented trio are purveying their wares across the green acres of Rotterdam's De Kuip stadium.

But in fact, only four players have not seen action of some sort. Two of them are the reserve keepers, one is the brilliant Parma midfielder Paulo Sousa - still injured - and the other is Deportivo striker Pauleta.

It may well be worth giving Pauleta a run-out, simply because it is still not clear who Joao Pinto's partner up front should be.

Pinto is Portugal's best striker, but he did not seem to gel all that well with Nuno Gomes against Romania. You would never guess they were club colleagues at Benfica, where Gomes scored 18 goals last season.

Gomes, apart from his goal, was one of the few who failed to sparkle against England. And Sa Pinto, who replaced him halfway through the Romania match, is one who has been in and out of the national side. A big game for Pauleta might provide the answer.

Portugal were, truth to tell, a shadow of the team who lorded it over England when they struggled to beat Romania in their second fixture. It took them 70 minutes to record a shot on target against the East Europeans.

But sometimes it is hard to turn on the tap every game. And Portugal may have done themselves a favour in this regard.

Four years ago they topped their group in style, before crashing out to the Czech Republic. Perhaps this time, they have already had their bad day at the office.

And what of the poor Germans? They have to win this game and hope Romania can beat England. But only if they beat Portugal by a bigger margin than Romania beat England will they prosper to play Italy in the quarter-finals.

Let's face it, it's an unlikely proposition. With captain Oliver Bierhoff still injured, it's hard to see where they will score the goals they need.

Carsten Jancker, the tall Bayern Munich front man, certainly looked menacing enough against England, but he hardly looked a class act and was guilty of the howling miss which would have brought Germany an equaliser.

Ulf Kirsten, who also had a quiet game against England, was eventually replaced by Paulo Rink. But Rink, the Bayer Leverkusen man who is actually Brazilian, sometimes looks like he would struggle in a game of beach footie in Rio.

England men like Paul Ince and Dennis Wise did a good job of shackling German's midfield - which is the only area where the team show any semblance of class.

Jens Jeremies, one of the few plus points from the Romania game, was closely watched and before the end he was substituted by Erich Ribbeck.

Germany's one hope is that Portugal will have one eye on the quarter-finals and may not tackle like terriers for the full 90 minutes.

In that case, Jeremies's colleagues in midfield, players like Dietmar Hamann, Mehmet Scholl and Sebastian Deisler, must cross their fingers and pray that whatever chances they can serve up to their profligate forwards are miraculously taken.s