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Not since the infamous evening in Barcelona when a pig's head was hurled at him had Luis Figo been under such pressure to perform in a football match.
After being substituted in Portugal's quarter-final victory over England, he looked a beaten man, staring at the track surrounding the pitch in the Estadio da Luz as if seeking the answer for his decline in ability. That humiliation came after three performances in the group phase in which Figo was lucky to reach mediocre. He was too static, too easy to read, always looking for the ball to feet but too slow to create anything when he received it.
Luiz Felipe Scolari, Portugal's coach, must have pondered whether fielding him against Holland would be a decision based more on sentiment than sound management.
"No matter what happens, he will always be my hero, on and off the pitch," Scolari said, as if preparing Figo for the end of his international career while trying to save his pride. It now all looks like a classic bluff, a shrewd move calculated inside the Brazilian's bald head to draw the maximum positive reaction from his captain.
When it came to the crunch, Scolari retained 31-year-old in his starting XI. It was his 109th cap, making him the Portuguese joint- record holder along with...