Well, it’s an all-European last four, and England’s not included. Somehow, writing five hours after the penalty shoot-out debacle, I’m coming round to seeing that fact as something of a relief. Now I can sit back and enjoy some great football without the constant disappointment of seeing my team – full of great players – consistently under-perform. We’ve been poor right through the tournament, and all that belief that somehow we’d come good when it mattered – well, we didn’t. Portugal were lacklustre, and we were just that bit worse – though I’d have to single out Owen Hargreaves for praise: he was all over the place, and entirely appropriately was the only one (of four!) who managed to score in the shoot-out. Watching the Brazil-France game afterwards was like watching a top-flight premiership game after sitting through a grim relegation struggle in the second division. We don’t deserve to be in that company – but neither do Portugal.
I don’t imagine it’ll be long before Man U see the back of Cristiano Ronaldo. Quite apart from the, er, tension in the dressing room, he’ll be loudly booed at every premiership game next season.
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