Neville and the England squad are on a high this morning after qualifying for the quarter-finals of Euro 2004 with a thumping 4-2 victory over Croatia in Lisbon.

The result has sent expectations soaring across the country and the Three Lions could hardly be more confident going into Thursday's mouth-watering match against hosts Portugal.

There is no question that England are the team of the moment after Wayne Rooney's double strike in Lisbon sent him to the top of the Euro 2004 goalscoring charts and put the team on a major high.

Defender Neville said: "Going a goal down dragged out of us one of our best performances in the tournament so far. It was what an English performance is all about - high energy, high tempo, creating chances.

"We had some good players on the night, especially the forwards.

"Even when they scored nobody's confidence wavered. We pushed forward and kept going. We got to the ball quickly and I don't think the Croatians, with respect to them, could live with us for large parts of the match."

Neville admits the result has left England's players elated, and they now have two days to prepare for the biggest game of the tournament so far.

It won't be easy against a Portugal side also riding high after beating neighbours Spain for the first time in 23 years.

But Neville is certain there will be a few Portuguese players biting their nails when they take a look at the video of England v Croatia.

He said: "I don't think Portugal will have enjoyed seeing what they saw from us against Croatia.

"They will see a high energy game with power and pace, counter-attacking at speed, good tackling and passing. We just hope we can produce that sort of performance on Thursday."

The highlight, of course, was a man of the match display from Rooney, who is dominating headlines on both the news and sports pages of newspapers right now. But Neville says he has no plans to bring the Everton man back down to earth.

He said: "Everything that needs to said about him has been said and I'm a bit wary of putting any more pressure on him. But I don't think it bothers him to be honest. He was brilliant against France and he's been the same against Croatia.

"We don't want to bring him back down to earth. I think the main thing we can do is tell him to rest. Portugal will have an extra day to prepare and we all need to rest.

"But we want to keep him on a high. You don't want to bring someone down who is on a high like that. He just needs to get his feet up and relax if he can.

"I don't know how he'll do it but hopefully he'll be up for Thursday and produce the kind of performance he has done already."