Ronaldo's the key again ... ...but now Germany must fear Cristiano

Six years on, here in Basle, and Scolari is preparing a Portugal team boasting a brilliant forward called Ronaldo for an encounter against a Germany side that, on this occasion, will include Ballack.

Happy days: Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari and Cristiano Ronaldo during a training session in Basel

They also met in football's most meaningless game two years ago, the third-place play-off at the last World Cup, won, incidentally, by the Germans. But what makes this one all the more intriguing is the fact that Ballack is also a member of the Chelsea squad soon to be under Scolari's command.

Yesterday the Brazilian attempted to shift the focus away from his duel with Germany's captain. In what amounted to a marvellous piece of theatre and an indication of the fun we are going to have with this guy at Stamford Bridge, Scolari called his press conference to a momentary halt to remove a sheet of paper from his inside pocket.

Having already listened to questions without the assistance of an interpreter and then declared, in English, that he 'understands more and more', he started to read out the names of German players along with their vital statistics.

'Ballack, number 13, 1.88m, Klose 1.82, Worns, 1.89m, Metzelder, 1.94m,' he said. 'I've got to concern myself with all that, especially when mine are 1.15m, 1.20m!

'If I am only concerned with Ballack that's the major mistake. I have to create a situation where we can overcome all these height differences through the quality of my players, even though they are small.

'Ballack is important. He's a great player with a lot of technical quality and is one of the great players in the tournament. In the past three years he has hit a peak. But we can't only concern ourselves with Ballack.'

It was a wonderful performance and typical of a man who oozes so much confidence it has to inspire his players. Yesterday he not only named his team - it will be the same that started against Turkey and the Czech Republic - but he urged UEFA to rescind their touchline ban and allow coach Joachim Loew to take his place on the German bench.

Loew has been banned, something Scolari considers a nonsense, after he and Austria's Josef Hickersberger were sent off on Monday for arguing with the fourth official.

Scolari said: 'If I can in any way influence UEFA, I'd like to see them review their suspension and allow Joachim Loew on the bench coaching his team. If it was my decision, or Portugal's, I would applaud UEFA if they placed the German coach on the German bench so he could manage his team.'

Was he that confident of winning this quarter-final? 'It's not a question of confidence,' he said before reflecting on a situation during the last qualification campaign when Javier Clemente called for him to be banned from football for a row with one of his Serbia players that ended in a touchline ban.

'It's a question of friendship. I've lived through situations where a coach who could help me in that situation was a bad person. I don't want to be that kind of person, and I would like Joachim to be on the bench. 'It's not going to change things on the pitch. I have lived with bad character from another coach and I don't want to be the same. I want to show that all the coaches in this Euro have respect and are good people.'

Scolari is a good coach, as England discovered to their considerable cost in three consecutive quarter-finals. A good talker too. He dismissed concerns about a relaid pitch at St Jakob Park and what amounts to pre-match provocation from the German camp.

'It is normal and it happens in every tournament,' he said in response to Ballack's assertion that Portugal are the favourites.

Choosing a favourite is difficult when this game is the first of four quarter-finals that will represent clash of cultures as well as styles. It will demonstrate if fast, fluent football can again succeed against the more measured approach that has proved so successful in the last two major tournaments.

In Portugal's favour is the fact that most of Scolari's players are well rested. While eight of them sat out their final group game against Switzerland, Germany's had to fight for their lives against Austria in Vienna three days ago.

Germany have fitness concerns over Torsten Frings and Lukas Podolski. Portugal have no such worries.

Scolari said: 'I trust my team and think we're going to go through. I certainly don't expect it to be my last game in charge.'

And Ronaldo? Cristiano Ronaldo, that is.

'He's simple, humble, works and is dedicated to the group,' said Scolari.

'He has a special will to win that I've not seen in anyone else and the others soak it in.' So that will be 2-0 Portugal then, with two goals from Ronaldo.