NOW the real work begins. The eight remaining teams in this tournament face their toughest tests so far this weekend with the start of the knockout phase. While there are one or two defensive outfits who are likely to stick to their guns, the games all have the potential to be very entertaining indeed.

England's match against Spain today should present them with a far greater challenger than they have faced so far. As well as Terry Venables' side played against the squabbling Dutch, as well as they played for 45 minutes of each of the games against the Swiss and Scots, they still have a great deal to prove.

Everyone was surprised by the strength of their performance on Tuesday but they will find it very hard to lift themselves again like that. That sort of momentum is very difficult to sustain for any length of time, even with the majority of the crowd behind you, while the Spanish will not crumble as easily as did the Dutch.

As a manager, Javier Clemente is cautious and he will pick a defensive team for this game. One of the most interesting confrontations will be the contest between Nadal and Gascoigne with the Spaniard having proven himself in the past of being capable of handling the very best opponents.

Hierro on McManaman should also be a tussle worth keeping an eye on and if the Spanish manage to take England's most creative midfielders out of the game or if their overall plan of preventing the English from playing their way succeeds then the hosts will find themselves in trouble.

On balance I have to say that I don't feel that the Spanish quite have what it takes to win the match. They might actually be good enough if they went out and took the game the England but they are unlikely to try that and if they allow lord England to come at them for long enough then, the way Shearer is playing just now, the likelihood is that they are going to get punished.

Not that England seem likely to significantly outplay their opponents, the match against Holland earlier in the week was surely the only time that we shall see them do that, but unless England go behind in a game, which is a scenario that I feel would really test them, then they will always have a strong chance of getting somewhere with the crowd behind them.

Enough of their key players are performing for them to continue their run beyond today and while they will sorely miss the freedom that Ince's presence allows Gascoigne, they should have the edge. If the Spanish shook things up dramatically, went in search of a quick goal and then allowed England to search for an equaliser in front of their increasingly restless supporters it all might be very difficult but that is hardly the style of Clemente who left some of his youngest and brightest stars at home for these championships.

In the other games of the weekend France, Germany and Portugal all look to be strong favourites although it is always difficult to tell what will happen in a one off situation.

The introduction of the Golden Goal rule is also an interesting factor in the equation which may push otherwise cautious sides into being more adventurous in normal time when they will at least have the opportunity to come back from conceding something at the back.

Once into extra time, as we presumably once or twice will in the four games, anything could happen but the entire thing could be quickly abandoned again if all that it means is that teams clam up entirely, terrified of slipping up and losing the match.

One team who have looked terrified of nothing so far is the Croats who go into their match with Germany as underdogs but with no great appearance of fearing the task ahead.

If they are not afraid, though, the fact that the Germans have had their practice pitch remarked so that it has exactly the dimensions as Wembley should give you some idea of just how likely they feel they are going to go this weekend.

After the draw with Italy Vogts, Klinsmann and some of the other senior players will have sat down and gone over the match together. On the face of it, it will have been disturbing for them that they could have been so heavily outplayed in a game but overall they are likely to have been well pleased that not even the Italians at their best could break them down defensively. It was the sort of performance that marks out a side as potential champions.

In this evening's game the Dutch really need to pull something out of the bag if they are going to overcome a French team that has got better with each outing.

The other night, the Dutch were appalling and in the aftermath of their humiliation it was clear that there were two distinct camps within the squad with the young, emerging black players on one side and everybody else on the other. Jock Stein used to say that the secret to being a successful manager was to keep the six players who hated you away from the five who were trying to decide how they felt about you and on this score Guus Hiddink appears to have failed.

Even if the Dutch team were playing to their potential it would have problems with what is the finest French team to emerge in many years. This too is a side in which the important players in key positions are functioning well and if Lama, Blanc, Desailly, Deschamps and Djorkaeff continue to produce the goods then their side will be there until the very end.

The other thing going for this game is the venue. So far Anfield, with its wonderful atmosphere, has produced three of the best games in the tournament with 12 goals and, while the French should continue to move towards the final, this one could be another Anfield cracker.

The meeting of the Czech's and Portuguese, meanwhile, might be somewhat more subdued but the positive approach of Antonio Oliveira generally makes any game that his side are involved in a pleasure to watch.

For their part the Czech's must see getting this far as a victory when they were the one side in their group who absolutely nobody was tipping. This would appear to be the end of their Euro `96 road, though, for, even with no especially good striker and a defence that will be hard pushed to stand up to the one of the competition's best teams, the Portuguese style of play should be enough to carry them through.