The full irony of England's downfall will become evident this weekend when Kevin Keegan watches the Premiership's outstanding players dispute the critical stages of Euro 2000.

But there will be only one English-born player in the last eight of the European Championship - Leicester City's Muzzy Izzet, who began his career at Chelsea.

Born in Mile End, the midfield player, ignored by Keegan, chose to accept Turkey's offer to play for them.

He qualifies because his father is Turkish and, having made his debut against Sweden, is in the squad to face Portugal in Amsterdam tomorrow evening.

'They've really made me welcome in the squad,' he said today. 'When I arrived they were hopeful of doing well in this tournament because of the success of Galatasaray.

'But for me anything I get here is a bonus. What I'm really looking forward to is the World Cup qualifying campaign.'

An £850,000 signing from Chelsea four years ago, Izzet, is recovering from a leg injury and his chances of being in the starting line-up have been enhanced by Turkey's decision to send home Rangers midfield player Kerimoglu Tugay for disciplinary reasons.

Portugal, conquerors of England and top scorers in Group A with seven goals from three matches, have contributed enormously to the exhilarating sense of adventure that has typified much of the football here.

In Rui Costa and Luis Figo, they have two of the tournament's most-gifted attacking players, though defensively they are suspect as England discovered during their most productive 20 minutes of the championship.

In fact, I've not seen one nation with a truly convincing defensive strategy, hence the goalscoring rate.

So far, 65 goals have been scored in the opening 24 games which is 10 more than from the same number of matches in Euro 96.

Italy, blessed with a lethal array of attacking possibilities, are one of the teams to have demonstrated some defensive diligence, evoking memories of the great days of Facchetti, Zoff and, more recently, Baresi.

The fact that Dino Zoff, their former national team goalkeeper, is now coach may have something to do with their new defensive confidence.

There's little doubt that, after struggling to qualify, the Italians have finally awoken and three wins in their group matches suggests that they will beat Romania in what was the Heysel Stadium in Brussels tomorrow night.

Naturally, the Romanians are full of themselves after their 3-2 victory over England but they will be without four key players - the suspended Dan Petrescu, Adrian Ilie and Cosmin Contra, and defender Gica Popescu, who has ruptured a thigh muscle.

Most attention this weekend, though, will focus on France, the favourites, and Holland who together emerged triumphant from Group D. Holland face the surprise quarter-finalists Yugoslavia in Rotterdam on Sunday with France meeting Spain in Bruges three hours later. This could be one of the great matches of the tournament, if the evidence of Spain's dramatic 4-3 victory over Yugoslavia is anything to go by.

The French, of course, have the self-assurance that comes with being world champions, plus the pace and goalscoring ability of Thierry Henry and Nicolas Anelka.

Add to that the kind of midfield that Keegan would die for - select from Zidane, Petit, Deschamps, Vieira, Pires - plus defenders such as Marcel Desailly and Lilian Thuram and you realise the size of the task facing Spain.

If Barcelona's Josep Guardiola can thread a pass through that lot, Spain have still to get past Manchester United's eccentric new goalkeeper Fabien Barthez.

Holland are similarly well-equipped with Arsenal's Dennis Bergkamp and Marc Overmars, stars in the Premiership, no more or less influential than Edgar Davids, Philip Cocu or Patrick Kluivert. My guess is that Holland and France will progress to join Portugal and Italy in the semi-finals. I'm sure Keegan and his England men will notice that all four teams have something in common - they pass the ball to each other.