Ballack can take the lead for Phil

How not to impress your new boss in just 90 minutes. Michael Ballack pondered his little piece of subterfuge, his large slice of mastery and a goal to end Luiz Felipe Scolari's dream and he couldn't help grinning: "I hope he doesn't give me a hard time!"

One suspects that Chelsea's new manager will forgive and forget because even if Ballack had ruined his final ambition as Portugal manager, Scolari will surely soon reflect once his obvious sadness has subsided that this is a man you want on your side.

And when, too, Scolari's annoyance finally evaporates over, Ballack's exquistelytimed shove on Paulo Ferreira, which enabled the German captain to head home the decisive third goal in a riveting quarter-final here, Big Phil, who's never been averse to enthusing about the effectiveness of the dark arts, may well own up to secretly admiring the Vorsprung durch Technik efficiency of such chicanery.

Not that Ferreira will share the feeling. This was the worst inter-club back stabbing since Cristiano Ronaldo helped his Manchester United pal Wayne Rooney get sent off in the World Cup and it contributed to a personal nightmare for the Chelsea defender, one of Scolari's favourites, who was also caught napping when Bastian Schweinsteiger scored the Germans' exquisite passand-move opener. Wouldn't you just love to be at Cobham to see these training ground reunions next month?

Yet Scolari will be comforted by seeing a true leader in his midst. He had asked for something like this from his own star man, Ronaldo, but, apart from helping make Portugal's first goal for Nuno Gomes, the most dazzling show he put on was in front of the flashbulbs afterwards as he talked about his dream to now move to Real Madrid.

Funny, though. If you'd told a passing alien to savour watching that incredible, thoroughly modern 23-year-old No7 with all the speed, trickery and finishing prowess, he'd have presumed you were talking about Schweinsteiger. For 'Basti', with his goal and the two he made, was the villain-turned-hero following his sending off against Croatia and a pre-match telling off from the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"Before the match, she told me I shouldn't do the same foolish things any more," mused Schweinsteiger, the brilliant but erratic bad boy of the German game. "I think when the Chancellor-tells you to do something you have to listen."

With team talks like that, who needed banned coach Joachim Loew, who was banished by UEFA to one of the stadium's private boxes for the night? When Helder Postiga's 87th-minute goal gave Portugal late hope, he was spotted looking like David Blaine in a glass box nervously cradling a ciggy.

Yet it was Loew's boldness which had smoked Scolari in the tactical stakes. "We'd had a lot of practice with the 4-4-2 system but didn't have enough creativity or passion," explained Ballack.

"So Joachim changed things around with five in midfield, one striker less and so we were very compact but also able to play more freely."

Croatia had outclassed them in the midfield numbers game but suddenly you were reminded how, with the introduction of two physically imposing sentries like Simon Rolfes and Thomas Hitzlsperger to guard the back four and to give him licence to roam as the attacking fulcrum of a five-man midfield, Ballack can look the supreme all-rounder.

His sterling work in defence was a lesson to Ronaldo, who just looked on gormlessly when Miroslav Klose headed Germany's second from Schweinsteiger's free kick. His headed finish for the decisive-third goal was clinical, too, although it left Scolari moaning to the fourth official for the rest of the game - and still afterwards - about Ballack's shove.

"I don't want to say Germany were favoured but all replays showed what Ballack did," he grumbled.

"I enjoyed the freedom of the role," said Ballack and his enthusiasm seemed to be reflected throughout a re-energised team quite unrecognisable from that hesitant crew against Croatia. It would be surprising if that scenario is repeated next Wednesday should they get the chance for revenge in the semi-final in Basel.

As for the Chelsea-bound Scolari, he might have taken one last lingering look at the superb art of Deco, who may be on his way to the Blues from Barcelona, and mused how wonderful a midfield featuring both him and Ballack might be.

It won't take long for him to forget Ronaldo and, just a hunch, but I've got a suspicion it won't take Manchester United too long either.