'Record' daily headlined its Euro 2004 digest with the words "the friends from Kaiserslautern," the club Rehhagel won the German league title with in 1998, adding that "Merk and Rehhagel are old friends and have a special affinity for the German city," Merk's birthplace.

"Merk was Rehhagel's family dentist," Record added.

The '24 horas' daily was even more blunt, getting its retaliation in early ahead of Sunday's showdown.

"Watch out! The referee is a friend of the Greeks," 24 horas said in a huge headline emblazoned across its front page.

"Markus Merk has known the opposing coach for 27 years," said 24 horas, which harrumphed that this suggested "dangerous links" between the man in the middle and the Greeks, who were Portugal's party poopers on the opening day of the tournament and who now are hellbent on shocking the hosts once again.

Rehhagel says he expects no help whatsoever from Merk.

"He is very rigorous and once sent me packing from the bench in a German league game," Rehhagel reminisced, thinking back to his brief stint in charge of Bayern Munich.

Merk, a keen triathlon competitor, will also be renewing his acquaintance with two of Portugal's stars in the shape of defender Jorge Andrade and midfielder Deco.

He sent Andrade off when the defender's Deportivo La Coruna clashed with Deco's Porto in the Champions League semi-final although the two players said they were only indulging in some pretend highjinks.

Merk, who has 16 years experience in the German league and 12 at international level, refereed the 2003 Champions League final between AC Milan and Juventus and the 42-year-old is regarded as one of the best "men in black" in the game.

At Euro 2004 he also officiated at the France versus England match and the Scandinavian derby between Sweden and Denmark.