THE task couldn't have been simpler. Choose five young players to watch for The Northern Echo's pre-tournament supplement and, if at all possible, make one of them English.

Four names jumped into my head straight away. Cristiano Ronaldo was coming off the back of an impressive first season at Manchester United, while Spain's Fernando Torres had been banging them in for fun at Atletico Madrid.

Arjen Robben had emerged as the latest in a long line of talented Dutch wingers, while German commentators were confident the relatively untried Kevin Kuranyi was the man to lift their side out of their usual pre-tournament torpor.

But England's young gun caused a few more problems. Ashley Cole had shown his class all season with Arsenal, but was already tried and tested at international level.

John Terry and Steven Gerrard had enough talent to light up the tournament but, at 23 years of age, neither really fell into the category of emerging starlet.

In the end there was only choice, but I have to confess that it was as much in hope as expectation that the name of Wayne Rooney found its way onto the shortlist.

At the time, there were significant question marks hanging over the Everton striker.

Nine goals in the whole of last season hardly suggested a forward at the top of his game, while Rooney's tinderbox temperament seemed ill-suited to the pressures and pitfalls of a major competition.

The choice didn't look too bad when the teenager bagged a brace as England routed Iceland in their final warm-up game, but that would mean nothing at all when the serious business began against France.

Lilian Thuram and Mikael Silvestre would provide the first true test of Rooney's ability to step up to the world stage and, while he couldn't provide the winning start England so desperately craved, he posted his intent with a superb second-half surge that culminated in David Beckham's penalty miss.

A decent enough start then, but nothing compared to what was to come four days later against Switzerland.

Rooney's headed opener was the classic striker's goal, while his stinging second underlined his prodigious threat from outside the penalty area.

Suddenly the whole of Europe was swooning at the 18-year-old from Merseyside and Croatia's tactics for Monday night's Group B decider seemed to revolve entirely around stopping England's new talisman.

But cometh the hour, cometh the man - or at least cometh the boy - and Rooney wasn't about to disappoint when England needed him most.

Trailing to Niko Kovac's early opener, it was his persistence and awareness that set up Paul Scholes' headed leveller in the 39th minute.

His blistering shooting was in evidence again as he fired England ahead on the stroke of half-time, and the calmness with which he dispatched his second spoke of a striker brimming with confidence and cockiness.

At the moment Rooney is unstoppable, a point acknowledged by Arsene Wenger who should know a thing or two about having a striker in form.

Sir Bobby Robson and Sven-Goran Eriksson have both compared him to Pele, while the rest of the England team have been queuing up to heap praise on a player who wasn't even born when Michel Platini made a similarly significant impact on Euro 84.

And as for the England fans? Well they have a new hero to worship and a host of new songs to sing.

The Spanish might love Beckham because of his Real Madrid links and the Portuguese might admire Scholes and Neville after Ronaldo's move to Old Trafford.

But the English love Rooney. We relate to his passion and pride, we revel in his intense will to win, and we relish the way opposition defenders seem to back off in a form of barely-contained reverence.

Most of all though, we love his goals. Picking him out as the young player to watch was right in all but one respect. He's simply the player to watch full stop.

Portugal's fans had only just stopped celebrating Sunday's dramatic win over Spain when they found it was to be England, not France, that they face in the quarter-finals.

Most are fairly happy with the outcome, although the locals grudgingly accept that England have been the best attacking side of the tournament so far.

They are confident they can exploit their weaknesses at the other end though, with crosses into the box causing all sorts of problems for the English backline.

Portugal aren't the tallest team in the world, and the suspension of striker Pauleta should certainly work in Eriksson's side's favour.

But the endless repeats of Joao Pinto's header from Euro 2000 should act as a warning of what could happen if England are not careful tomorrow night.

The Portuguese TV channels are certainly making the most of their side's 3-2 win over England in 2000.

The pictures are everywhere, but people seem somewhat more reluctant to talk about what happened when the two sides met for the first time in 1947.

That game ended in a 10-0 win for England - I think we'd all settle for something similar tomorrow.

English fans have been accused of being fickle in the past, particularly when they booed Kevin Keegan at Wembley and hastened his resignation.

But that was nothing compared to what the Dutch supporters were doing at Aveiro on Saturday night as their side played in the match of the tournament so far against the Czech Republic.

Dick Advocaat's decision to replace Arjen Robben with Paul Bosvelt was accompanied by a chorus of "He's bald, he's fat, he's going to get the sack, Advocaat".

And that was when they were 2-1 up! One can only imagine what the Dutch language chanting was all about after Vladimir Smicer scored his last-gasp winner.

Euro 2004 is not the only football being played in Portugal this summer as our villa entered a team in the world-renowned Ericeria five-a-side competition last weekend.

Two wins out of two and a point was all we needed from the last game to book our place in the last eight.

Time for a bit of old-fashioned English resolve and some tactical tinkering to ensure the right result.

Cue a 3-0 defeat and exit at the group stage. Clearly English success is not contagious