With the travel out of the way and the remaining injury worries cleared up, Mick McCarthy turned his attention to tomorrow evening's opponents. The Ireland coach made all the right noises about respect and admiration for Antonio Oliveira's side, but, with a sprinkling of local media there to prod him along, he reasserted his determination the Irish will put their own game-plan first on their return to the Stadium of Light.

McCarthy is uniquely well prepared for this weekend's match, having seen the Portuguese four times at the recent European Championships and again last month when they won their opening World Cup qualifier in Estonia. Still, the occasional chink in the armour was revealed as he fielded questions about the hosts.

Most notably, the former Millwall boss expressed surprise that Paulo Sousa, laid up with a thigh injury that has been the cause of much trouble between the player and his employers at Panathinaikos, was omitted by his opposite number after having done well in Tallinn a few weeks ago.

It's not entirely clear whether he was aware also that Sporting Lisbon defender Rui Jorge is out with an ankle injury, but if not then he's in for a minor but pleasant surprise over the day or so ahead.

More importantly, McCarthy brushed aside any suggestion that he might alter the attacking strategy that worked so well in Amsterdam to take account of the world's most expensive player, Luis Figo.

At Euro 2000, opposing managers took differing approaches to the question of how best to cope with the Real winger, but McCarthy made it clear yesterday afternoon that "I'm not prepared to go changing my plans in order to eliminate one player."

Whether anybody in his team would be capable of "eliminating" the 27-year-old is a moot point, but as far as McCarthy was prepared to go on the subject was to concede that the Portuguese international is a "very special" player, but that "I'm not prepared to delegate one of my players to spend his night marking him".

Elsewhere, the Portuguese have a few problems to ponder, with the absence of their striking sensation of the summer, Nuno Gomes, chief amongst them. Two other suspensions and, now, three significant injuries may not be quite the haul of setbacks that the Dutch had to endure, but it is, nevertheless, a setback.

Asked by the local press about his view on the number of absentees, McCarthy stopped short of expressing glee and offering to embark on a round of high fives. But then there were no crocodile tears either.

"I'll take any favours I can get," he announced with a rare press conference hint of a smile. "Holland had four missing through injury and one through retirement and it worked in my favour. It's part of the game, so I hope the Portuguese have some more problems to cope with tomorrow." Now, we're not talking about anything nasty here. The distraction of a serious falling out between Oliveira and his recently relocated star player might do the trick, although that would surely be asking for too much at this level of the game.

McCarthy appeared to think he had his own problems on that score sorted out when he and Roy Keane presented a wonderfully united front when quizzed on Wednesday about the midfielder's late arrival at the team hotel in Dublin this week.

When word reached him yesterday that the supposed feud was now, according to one Dublin paper's front page lead story, "war" he looked understandably dismayed. "It disappoints me, but if somebody's got an agenda then there's really nothing that I can do about it."

Still, after Amsterdam, McCarthy is on something of a tactical roll and so, in an instant, he'd identified the real cause of all his current difficulties. "I made a mistake this week," he observed, "and it's one I certainly won't make again. I told you my team on Tuesday. Normally when you lads are guessing and second guessing my team there's no problem, but when I leave you with nothing to write about, perhaps people have a tendency to make up stories."

Bewildered, the Portuguese journalists patiently waited to glean some explanation from their Irish colleagues for McCarthy's remarks. The Irish, meanwhile, had more immediate concerns. Should they ask permission before leaving their seats?