If, as expected, both John Terry and Paul Scholes recover from injury in time to assume their places in England’s starting line-up against Switzerland this afternoon, it will be the first time in the Championship that a country has fielded a team whose squad numbers are 1 through 11.
Each nation has a squad of 23 players in Portugal and though most managers must have had an idea of their best 11 before the matches began, injuries and, more often, superstition mean that the idea of a strict starting eleven, with representative squad numbers, has been consigned to history.
It may, in fact, be just an English thing. While Ledley King’s tenure at the centre of England’s defence was made to look decidedly fragile by the number 15 on his back, France, the reigning champions, would have to leave out Thierry Henry (12), Fabien Barthez (16), Lilian Thuram (15) and David Trezeguet (20) if they were to field their “first” eleven.
Meanwhile, Spain who are unbeaten after two group matches, have conceded just one goal with Iker Casillas, their first-choice goalkeeper sporting No 23 while Alessandro Nesta, of Italy, is widely considered to be one of the world’s leading defenders, despite carrying the unlucky 13 on his back.
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There are mixed portents for a country prepared to start a match with players numbered 1-11. Portugal fielded ten of their first 11 when they slumped to an opening-day defeat to Greece, but bounced back against Russia last night by bringing into the starting line-up four players with shirt numbers over 13. Their shirt numbers totalled 76 in the first match as opposed to a decidedly weightier 119 in the second.
Latvia started their defeat to the Czech Republic with only Juris Laizans, the No 5, absent from their first 11 (although he later came on as a substitute). However, Sweden thrashed Bulgaria 5-0 in their opening fixture with only Johan Mjallby, the No 4, missing.
Russia, the first team eliminated from the tournament, may be paying the price for their selection of players bearing high squad numbers. Their shirt numbers totalled 122 in the 1-0 defeat to Spain and a tournament-record 139 as they slumped 2-0 to Portugal.
Nevertheless there would be no shortage of managers who might fancy fielding the following “second” eleven, whose shirts number a staggering 210:
I Casillas (23, Spain); A Nesta (13, Italy), L King (15, England), L Thuram (15, France), P Lahm (21, Germany); Deco (20, Portugal), M Ballack (13, Germany), D Rommedahl (19, Denmark), T Frings (22, Germany), C Ronaldo (17, Portugal); Henry (12, France), Trezeguet (20, France).