What a poor game. Italy should have had it sewn up by half time, but by some minor miracle were pushed all the way to penalties. In the first half, England were OK to poor. The second half/extra time was a smurfing embarrassment, at times worse than look away CuchulainnSpain vs Ireland. England just couldn't keep the ball, at all. From the last ten minutes or so onwards, they just gave up altogether. Hart would hoof the ball upfield, Carroll would give it a consolatory nod nowhere, then Italy would pick the ball up again and have another go. It was just...woeful.

Young had another 2/10 performance (with another despicable dive thrown in for good measure), Milner made it clear he was just making up the numbers as Hodgson didn't want to start Walcott, Rooney looked very, very average, and Glen Johnson, he lost the ball twice as many times as he did anything productive with it. In the second half he played a lot better by virtue of him not having the ball nearly as often.

I find myself not as concerned as I would normally be at that result, as Italy were so obviously the better team it would have been a footballing travesty had they lost. The real winners are the Germans, as evidenced by the incredibly jovial Jurgen Klinsmann. At half time he had the manner of a man who had just managed to sell his damp-infested house for double its value. "We get to play one of these two utter football shambles? I'd better get on and fly my family over for the final!".