ROTTERDAM (Reuters) - If Italy were supposed to be shaking in their boots at the thought of facing the six-goal Dutch in Wednesday's Euro 2000 semifinal, there was little sign of it at the Italian team camp on Monday.

The Netherlands may have won over their biggest critic Johan Cruyff with their 6-1 destruction of Yugoslavia on Sunday but Italy were staying cool and even London bookmakers were sticking to their view that France would win the title.

By soccer tradition, Italy can be relied on to form an immovable object every time someone else produces an irresistible force.

So, predictably, there were no expressions of awe in the Italian camp at hat-trick hero Patrick Kluivert's predatory powers, Dennis Bergkamp's brio with the ball or Edgar Davids' midfield mastery.

Italy had spotted what the Netherlands team's four unsuccessful opponents so far at Euro 2000 had not seen - a weakness in the Dutch game.

'They leave a few holes behind their midfield,' forward Francesco Totti said tartly.

'Playing the way they do is a bit risky, if you ask me,' said captain Paolo Maldini.

Everybody was asking him, of course. Only Italy, who play the Dutch in Thursday's semifinal in Amsterdam, stand between the co-hosts and next Sunday's final in Rotterdam.

Cruyff, the greatest ever Dutch player, gave up sniping at the team through the media and described their performance as 'fantastic'.

He told the team to forget his harping and enjoy the future.

Bookmakers, nevertheless, insisted France, who play Portugal in Brussels on Wednesday, remained favourites at 6-4 with the Dutch second at 7-4.

Dutch coach Frank Rijkaard tried to calm down any signs of euphoria and worried about whether left back Arthur Numan would overcome a foot injury in time for the semifinal.

The French, who scraped past Spain 2-1 after seeing Raul miss a last-minute penalty which would have taken the game into extra time, admitted they were lucky to survive.

They started reminiscing too of France's last big match against the Portuguese when Michel Platini's side came from 2-0 down to win 3-2 in the 1984 European Championship semifinals. France then went on to win the title.

Portugal remained quietly confident of pulling off an upset on Wednesday, left back Dimas pointing out that the team was far more than just a collection of midfield wizards.

Portugal's defence was solid, he said, and had not conceded a goal since coming back from 2-0 down against England after less than 20 minutes of their first game at Euro 2000.

UEFA appointed Swedish insurance claims manager Anders Frisk to referee Sunday's final.

UEFA also said Romanian captain Gheorghe Hagi should have been sent off for his tackle on Italian midfielder Antonio Conte in Saturday's quarter-final. The crunching challenge put Conte out of the tournament with a serious ankle injury.