France! Oh France!

Mon Deu! Or what ever the phrase is, the French are out! There goes my £5. Last time I listen to the Mrs for football betting tips. This post shall be a brief one as I'm tired and now £5 lighter in the wallet and therefore in no mood to waxy lyrically about today's footballing proceedings.

Watch out Row Z! Here come's Travis' tip for the Golden Boot

In short Spain went for the 4-6-0 formation again, France had periods where managed to wrestle possession from the Spaniards but showed about as much cutting edge as those scissors they give you at primary school. Although we still haven't had a 0-0 this game was not a classic (unlike last night's game); just to top things off for me, gambling wise, Benzema managed to finish the tournament with zero goals and put in a pretty damp performance up front. I had Monsieur Benzema each way to finish as the tournament's leading scorer so obviously he did nothing, £10 down the drain. I shall never forgive the French!

I might as well have put my money on Gekas, or was it Salpingidis? I dunno, whichever of those little bearded fellas up front for Greece that scored again last night. And no I don't mean Samaras ...I MEAN COME ON BENZEMA!! Even Samaras has scored! He got like 4 all season in the SPL, I could get 4 in a season playing in the SPL and I play in goal!

Anyway here's 10 things I learnt from the past week in the European World Cup.

Germany are awesome
They played their B attack last night and still took Greece apart. I know it was Greece and it finished 4-2 (very flattering) but that game was an absolute mauling and the Germans gave a fine display of how attacking football should be played.

Roy Keane is an angry man
I know I mentioned this before, but he makes me laugh. He's so aggressive, I get the impression that he's one sarky Adrian Childs comment away from totally kicking off and going back home to walk his dog.

He doesn't even look that happy here

Ireland are terrible
Played 3, Lost 3, Conceded 9 and scored 1. Zero points. Thanks for coming boys, shut the door on your way out, we don't want a draft coming in.

France couldn't give a toss if they were knocked out
See above and their performance against Sweden. Arrrrgh, I'm not letting this go! You've cost me Dix pounds!!

It doesn't matter about goal line technology if the dodgy decision goes in your favour
"We were robbed against the Germans". "They had an official on the line". "The move started from an offside position so it doesn't matter". I've said it a million times, there's a simple solution. Penalty or Goal, just like at school, that would sort out any debate.

No matter how badly England play, everybody over here will talk them up, provided they aren't knocked out
Two unconvincing wins against two not very good sides and I'm seeing stories of Joe Hart saying "we can win it". Oh god!

Portugal are actually quite decent
I said they'd be rubbish and that Ronaldo wouldn't score, so obviously they've come to life and proved that I know nothing about predicting football results. Nice!

There are times when Jamie Carragher gets so excited on ITV that he gobs over the other pundits
Calm down Jamie. I agree, the French did need to up it in the second half, but I think you're starting to grate on Roy...

Joachim Lowe's fashion sense is still impeccable

Check out the fitted shirt

I am going to miss the football when it's all over
I was si lost on Wednesday I started watching the English equivalent to the IPL to fill the void. It was so drab I can't even remember who was playing.

England v Italy tomorrow for a place in the Semi Finals. Remember ref, anything goes providing it favours England...