The footballer recognised with awesome respect, even reverence, by both team-mates and fans picked up his second booking of the tournament and, with it, potentially the saddest farewell of all to an impressively lengthy and rewarding international career.

It was to prove only the first destructively crucial moment in the destiny of the Group A qualifiers as, in the fifth minute of added time, the ecstatic Portuguese seized their second victory in two games through a goal by substitute Costinha.

Equally damaging to Romania coach Emerich Jenei's plans to progress from the opening group phase must be the absence of Hagi, who holds a talismanic influence on his team.

From the 16th minute, when French referee Gilles Veissiere reached for his yellow card, the swarthy, sublimely skilled Hagi knew that he was doomed, a footballer without any possible reprieve for the all-important final group game against England.

Later, clearly disgruntled and frustrated with the booking, he confirmed his career for his country might already be over. He said: 'It is too difficult for me to think at this moment that because of this suspension I have played my last game for my country. It is a possibility that hurts me too.

'But all of us are angry because of the way we were chased down by the referee. We felt that he just wanted to book Romanians. Three of us got yellow cards in the first half and that was an injustice.

'I got booked for my first tackle of the match and it was in the middle of the pitch. What am I supposed to think about that? Now we must just live in hope that we can still get through.

'We have a small chance still, but it is only a small chance and for that we rely with our destiny on other people. But I do know one thing - this Romanian team can beat England even without Hagi.'

Team-mate Dorinel Munteanu added: 'Hagi means so much to this team but we can win without him against England. We have done that before and we have the players to do it again. But he didn't deserve his booking. It left us all disappointed.'

The winning goal, savagely inflicted goal in the 95th minute, was set up by the same right boot of Luis Figo that devastated Kevin Keegan's England four days earlier, as he applied venomous accuracy to a 30-yard free-kick.

Amid the mayhem and panic in the Romanian defence, goalkeeper Bogdan Stelea's judgment proved flawed and Costinha, who had entered the action only five minutes earlier, headed his undeserved prize.

Portugal had been found out for much of a drearily contested game, their vaunted attacking threats easily controlled by the Romanians, who, unlike England five days earlier, had men capable of making a tackle in midfield.

Against England, Figo and the highly-creative Manuel Rui Costa had played at the tempo of rollerball freaks. Here, an hour or so up the road from Eindhoven in Arnheim, they had performed more like the glitterati of the game.

The Romanians certainly did not deserve to be beaten and they might have avoided such a feat, courtesy of Hagi's magical input five minutes from the end.

The veteran midfielder has often in a lengthy career been his country's hero without seeming to work hard enough to suffer with perspiration, and he had the Portuguese defenders in a cold sweat with an amazing 30-yard strike that goalkeeper Vitor Baia shovelled over his crossbar.