Africans, Look-a-Likes and Prediction Competitions

Which Greek player is this?? Who knows?

We're 5 days into to the 2014 World Cup and, as I was saying on Saturday, it's been brilliant. There have been late goals and drama all over the show. We've seen almost everyone play once now, with the exception of Group H; containing, the lightest of "Dark Horses" Belgium (every man and his dog thinks they're going to do well, they can hardly be called dark horses). Can I just say, I don't think Belgium are going to be spectacular, I expect them to progress from their group but that's about it.

Anyway, away from the Belgium talk as I was saying it's been a fantastic tournament so far. England got off to an encouraging start, even if we did lose. We showed a bit of attacking threat against the Italians and made them uncomfortable for periods of the game. The bad sides to our performance were that we were a bit dodgy at the back and there were periods where our midfield couldn't get near Pirlo and Verratti; there was a sense that the Italians had us where they wanted us to be (and they did hit the post & bar and have a shot cleared off the line). I found it to be a thoroughly engrossing game, bring on Uruguay (who, by the way I said would struggle)!

There have been a couple of downsides to this tournament, the first is the game times. I'm not sure if I want more 5pms or 11pms? With the 5pms I basically have to rush home from work and miss the first 10 minutes of the game. Thank god I now work across the road from home, which is purely a lucky coincidence (that wasn't part of the search criteria when I was looking for somewhere to live). The 11pm starts are just as bad. Although I don't miss any of the action, I'm really struggling to stay awake. Speaking of staying awake, I totally messed up the 2am Ivory Coast v Japan game the other day. Not only did I fall asleep during parts of it, but each of my snoozes coincided with the time at which the goals were scored and then I ended up falling asleep on the sofa only to be woken up by the Mrs at 6am, who came it wondering why I hadn't come to bed. Worst was to come, having thought to myself, "Ah, it was a tad ambitious expecting to stay up until quarter to 4. It's not like England were playing..." I then awoke at some point late on Sunday morning to find that the World and his dog had actually  braved it and watched the full 90 minutes!! Even my dad was like, "What? You didn't watch Ivory Coast v Japan? Pfft!" Thank god there's no more 2ams, I couldn't deal with the shame...

The second negative point at this year's tournament has been the performance of the African nations so far. Now I can't speak for the Ivory Coast, as you know I was "catching some Zzzzs", but Cameroon and Nigeria were terrible in their first two games. Cameroon are taking the mick, the players had the cheek to refuse to board their flight to Brazil as they were in the midst of a row over player bonuses. If I was the FA I'd have promised them a huge bonus and then made it performance related! It's an absolute disgrace that a footballer needs to be monetarily coerced into playing for their nation at a World Cup. There are millions of people who'd kill to be professional footballers; then of the professional footballers there are thousands who'd kill to play for their national team, then of the national teams there are hundreds who'd kill to make it to the World Cup! These boys need a reality check! It's not like they're skint or hard up for cash! Especially after that woeful performance against Mexico!

The Nigerian FA could have done us all a favour and sorted out the Cameroon row by donating their players' bonus money to them. Because the Nigerian players certainly won't be earning any bonuses if their performances carry on in the same vein. The Nigerians were awful against Iran and the two teams served up the first (and only so far) 0-0 of the tournament. I hate it when commentators stereotype teams but I have to say the Nigerian performance was very typical of games that you seen in the African Nations cup, players charging forward, miscontrolling the ball so much that every second touch is a lunging tackle, woeful shots from 20+ yards out when a pass to team mates would have been more productive... arrgh!!

Best thing about the Nigeria game was the tweet below (I actually laughed almost to the point of tears):-

As mentioned about a million times before (I just can't get over it) this tournament has been refreshingly entertaining and high scoring. There is one downside to this however. That is that I'm struggling badly in the work Prediction Competition. I am running this years competition with another colleague and the stakes are high (there's £200 up for grabs for the winner!) and as a result I've had a chance to look at everyone else's entries. There I was scoffing at others for their lack of 0-0 draws and 1-0 wins, thinking I'd be around the top of the table and in with a shout for getting some of the cash... Goalfest!! Stupid heat!

You've probably noticed I like a look-a-like, I've had quite a bit of positive feedback for my Paulinho is Sri Lankan shout in my last post and as a result have decided to treat you with a couple more. Let's forget that half the Greek team seem to look like Demitrios Salpangidis (half is an exaggeration, it's more like one other player), does anyone else think that Panagiotis Kone looks like he should be some sort of cape wearing, old school villain. The sort that is the arch enemy of somebody like Sherlock Holmes, twiddles his moustache when he's about to do something "Villainy" and who cackles at the thought of the misery he's about to inflict on his victims... No? Just me?

I have images of him tying a damsel to some railway tracks

Forget that though, more importantly. You may or may not have heard that, David Beckham understudy, David Bentley (he even copied the first 7 characters of his name) retired from football last week and the age of just 29. Never fear, Mr Bentley will still have a steady income coming in as he seems to have taken up a post as part of the Chilean coaching staff (as seen during Friday's game against Australia).

Finally, Colombia have decided to tighten up their defence with the former West Indian cricket captain Darren Sammy. Well that's who I saw playing on Saturday against Salpangidis and that Dastardly Panagiotis Kone.

That's enough for today. Let us all enjoy Braaaaaaaaaziiil Braaaaaaaaaziiil against Mexico later! Oh and when did we stop taking goal kicks and corners? Pretty much every corner I've seen and been a short one and keepers never seem to boot the ball forward. Why wasn't this fashionable when I used to play Sunday Football, I hate goal kicks!

Update

Congrats, but don't get carried away

I know I've not been on here for over a week now, I've been kinda busy. Just want to say congrats to Spain on Winning the inaugural European World Cup (yep I'm continuing the joke), lets see if they can defend it in 4 years time. See that's how you praise them! I think everyone is getting a little excited and carried away, proclaiming them as the greatest team ever. Yes they've won three competitions on the bounce but so did Uruguay in the 1920's/30's and the Italian side of the mid to late 30's might have done the same had the European World Cup been invented back then, the Brazillians of the late 90's/early 00's would have probably won three World Cups had Ronaldo not had a fit in the preparation for the 1998 final... The point I'm trying to make is, let's not get carried away, lets just appreciate Spain for what they are, a good football team, let's stop "sucking them off" (for want of a better phrase). They've been fortunate at times as have others been unfortunate, this not to take anything away from them but I'd say Germany were the most impressive team this year, they had an off 60 minutes (just as Spain did against Switzerland in their first game of the last World Cup) and were caught out. Italy were well beaten in the final but nobody seems to remember that they played the best part of half an hour with 10 men due to an unfortunate injury to Thiago Motta. England were... nah I'm kidding! England were dog poo as usual and everyone got excited despite constantly saying, "we're not getting excited this year", I mean can you believe there were people who thought we could match up to the likes of Italy?? We ended up putting in an embarrassing performance, it's not surprise we lost the penalty shoot out the players were knackered from spending 100+ minutes chasing Andrea Pirlo and co.

My final thoughts on Euro 2012, a thoroughly entertaining tournament the likes of which I haven't seen for a VERY long time. Let's hope the 2014 World Cup is just as good.

Best player: Andrea Pirlo, the only person who wasn't Spanish to come out of the tournament getting "sucked off" (sorry) by the press over here. It's liken they'd never heard of him, despite him being a World Cup winner, the wrong side of 30, playing for the current Italian champions... lazy journalism!

Worst player: Georgious Samaras. Wow! He was shocking. In the BBC closing montage they had a slo-mo of another Greek player shouting at him, I thought that was quite apt as I can imagine he'd have been pretty frustrating to play with. He did get on the scoresheet against the Germans though, I believe that puts him on 5 for the season. Yes! Five!! From a forward!

Best goal: Blaszczykowski's equaliser for Poland against Russia, great strike, apologies for Mick McCarthy's drab Northern accent.

Best Game: Not sure? The opener was pretty entertaining what with two red cards, a penalty save and a host of jokes regarding Greek instability & Poland's right wing element (this stuff writes itself sometimes).

Worst Game: Spain v Portugal, snoozeville. See they're not all flair and "Tika Taka"

Best Celebration: There weren't many or any unusual celebrations so I'll have to go with Balotelli's shirt off flex

Best Team: Germany, in my opinion. But that is closely followed by Spain. The best team doesn't always win!

Worst Team: Ireland, see Samaras. He scored as many as they did!

Best name: "You're a Czech!!" (Jiracek)

Best Look-a-like: Manuel Neuer looks a man from a Nazi propaganda poster or like he'd be on the East German team in Cool Runnings.

Hey, Jamaica! Watch out for Number Twelve turn. Scary, jaah?

Other notable mentions: Can we stop playing music after a goal is scored please UEFA? It's not clever. It's what teams from up north that have half empty stadiums do. We also do not need a pretentious overhead gradually zooming in, camera shot of every kick off. Nor do we need a countdown to kick off, the referee's whistle is sufficient. And goal line technology?!? Pfft, how many more times do I have to say it, Penalty or Goal, it worked when I was a kid.

So that's it, 31 games, 76 goals, 3 penalties, 3 red cars, 2 penalty shootouts and another drab performance from England and we're back where we began, Spain are still the champions of Europe. On to the David Beckhamless Olympic football tournament (Oh, the outrage! *rolls eyes*), which I will be attending. But before that I've got 10 days in Ibiza so don't expect to hear much from me at least until the 18th or so...

Check out these.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xrzg3a_itv-euro-2012-tournament-closing-montage_sport
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18668987

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...

From daily to weekly. Apologies

It would appear that I bit off way more than I could chew in saying I'd update this blog every day during the European World Cup. OK so I lied, it's not like I went a week without updating it...

Anybody that's paying attention, or that cares, will notice that that last statement is also a lie, it has been a week since I last put finger to button in anger on here. But now I'm back! And what a week it has been!

In summary...

Captain Cavemaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!

England were almost single handedly beaten by a caveman. When the hell did Olaf Mellburg score goals? And when he does when does he get a brace, that would have been one hell of a bet!

In Group A Greece managed to do a "Greece Euro 2004" and sneak through at the expense of the Russians, despite the Russians clearly being the best side in the group and finishing with a much better record in the tournament than the Greeks?!?! What the hell is up with this head to head rubbish that UEFA are doing? Nobody knows what is going on. Were Spain and Croatia going to draw 2-2? Were Italy going out even if they won 10-0? Were Spain going to go through? The Italian players had no idea what they needed to do to throw the Ireland game, so they just beat them and went through to the next round. I'm joking by the way I don't buy into all that "Italians are cheats nonsense". They're no more cheats than anyone else. To be fair there is one thing I find more confusing than the logic behind "Head to Head" and that is, who is who out of Gekas and Salpingidis? I thought Gekas had scored twice but it turns out it was Salpingidis that got their goal in the Poland game. Gekas could end up with the Golden Boot at this rate...

These are two different guys I swear!

Another thing that I noticed in Group A were two hilarious names in the Czech Republic team. I'm not sure if I'm the only one who giggles every time the commentators talk of Gebre Selassie (the Czech right back) and how he's full of running... I'm not surprised he's full of running, you should have seen him in the 10,000 Metres in Atlanta!!

Watch out for him on the Czech right flank

And on top of that they've also got a guy in the side called "You're a Czech" (spelt Jiracek). It's almost as if he had an identity crisis and wasn't sure who he should represent at international level, so somebody had to remind him in his name. Thank god for him he's not from The Central African Republic. "You're a Central African Republican", would that fit on the back of a shirt?


In Group B the Dutch are out! I have nothing funny to say about that, they've ruined my chances in work's prediction competition, I had them as runners up! There's talk of dissent in the camp, in traditional Dutch style. Holland if you're gonna go all late 1990's on us you might as well get the De Boer brothers back, who can I say, are so inseparable they've got a joint Twitter account. Give it up guys! Those Ajax days are over, you're going to have to go your separate ways at some point in your lives.

England are through, and once again I'm left thinking, "Am I the only one who can see the cracks?" As mentioned before we let the Swedish caveman score twice, and we didn't look all that convincing in our victory over Ukraine (I've been told I'm not supposed to say "The Ukraine"). Our goal came from a piece of goalkeeping so dodgy that even Shay Given, Petr Cech and myself were shaking our heads while we watched it on TV. You know for the fact that the Sun will have some sort of "Woy" Hodgson pun tomorrow and will have proclaimed us the new all conquering Kings of the European World Cup!

So it's on to the quarter finals and the only thing I have left to say is, how defensive/aggressive is Roy Keane? Wow! All he ever seems to say is "Listen!" We're all listening Roy (apologies to those of you who follow me on Twitter, you'll have heard that one already)! If you think I'm exaggerating watch this. Make sure you listen!

Oh and Zlatan scored AGAIN!

My thoughts on The "European World Cup Soccer Championship of America" Day 1

Can't wait to watch Brazil

A quick explanation re the post title. So I'm sitting at work and I'm forwarded an email from a friendly colleague who shall remain nameless; basically his team leader has decided that it would be a great morale boost for the team if they hold a Euro 2012 sweepstake, the email is titled, "The Written Communications European World Cup". My first impression is, that doesn't even sound right?!? Even if you don't give it much thought it's just a bit of a mouthful. Then you start to give it some logical thought... "European World Cup!" It sounds like the sort of thing you'd get an American saying, not one of those enlightened Americans that know what's going on in the World outside of the U S of A, one of these guys. I can just imagine them now, "We now have the latest news from The European World Cup Soccer Championship of America! Brazil have benched their goalscoring forward Paylay in place of the rookie Ney-Mar...!"

As for the tournament, I stuck £5 on the French to win on a recommendation from my other half who knows absolutely nothing about football. I thought to myself, every year I sit here weighing up qualifying records and looking at friendly results and injured players etc, and for all that "insight" I never pick the winner. So on this occasion I'm going to go with the opinion of someone who knows nothing about football. My girlfriend certainly fits that bill, in addition to that France had a good qualifying record and have looked decent in recent friendlies...

Day 1 Summary
I rushed home from work to see the last 10 mins of what looked like a pretty naff opening ceremony. Managed to catch the "Magician" who was trying (and failing miserably) to juggle a ball. At one stage I thought he was going to revert to good ol' fashioned one footed kick ups but then again I think he'd have struggled to do those.

I thought the opening game was fantastic, one of the best opening games I've seen to a football tournament, largely due to the technical frailties of both sides. What stuck me from the beginning was how much of an atmosphere the home crowd created, it must have been pretty intimidating for the referee and he certainly showed it with his performance. How an earth he managed to send off the Greek centre half I'll never know, hopefully it isn't a sign of things to come. Poland look terrible, it all started off so well for them, they were getting so much joy down the right hand side, Twitter was full of jokes relating to Poland having a strong right wing element (boom boom). At the same time the Greek defence was literally parting every time they attacked, leading to much talk of Greek instability (boom boom, I'm 'ere all week). I was not surprised at all when Poland scored early in the game, and wasn't too sure what the Greek keeper was trying to do at the time. I often get berated by my team members for opting to stay on my line for some crosses, if the Greek keeper had taken some lessons from Travis Newton he'd have been fine. Instead he went for a wonder and Ledw Lwed that fella from Dortmund that I put in my Dream Team (Lewandowski I know his name, I'm messing with you) scored a decent header. At that point I though it was going to be a massacre or even a... Greek Tragedy, you know one of the newspapers would have said that, but to their credit the Greeks shrugged off Poland's dominance in the first half along with some clear home team refereeing to come back well in the 2nd half. They were unlucky not to end up winning the game in my opinion.

The Greeks spurned many a chance, including a missed penalty

The second game was also a good one. I thought the Czechs started well but then Russia came to life and showed why they're clear favourites to win a very weak Group A. For some reason despite thinking Russia were better, I decided to go for a 1-1 draw in the office prediction competition, told ya I knew nothing about these things! In the end Russia were just way too good for them and the scoreline told this story. I do think that the Czech's may do well against the Poles and the Greeks though and more inportantly I have three Russians in my dream team!

A dream start for the Russians (see what I did there? Dream, as in Dream Team, I'm so clever)

Day 1:Hero
Dzagoev for Russia, he scored twice. Although he did miss a couple of sitters.

Villain

That Spanish ref in the Poland game. I'm not even bothering to Google his name, you know who I mean. He made some shocking decisions especially the Greek sending off. Somebody Tweeted that he has produced 16 red cards in 19 La Liga games this year, well he's already had two in one European Championship game. Why didn't the Spanish send the one who looks like Dracula (or is he Mexican? Well it is the European World Cup, he is eligible) 

Is Dracula Spanish or Mexican? Get him in!!

Bet of the day
Russia -2 would have been a good one but I doubt anyone would have realistically bet on that. I did however win £1.40 on there being under 3 goals in the opening game.

So there you have it, Euro 2012 is finally here and the first two games were quality. I can't wait for tomorrow's games, although now they'll probably be cagey and boring. They'd better not! Oh, and can people stop backing Ronaldo to do well, Portugal are dog poo, he doesn't have his Real Madrid team mates around him now.

10 Things: Week 4 - 10 Memorable European Championship Moments

I've just polished off two plates of home made Carbonara and I can barely move, to me that seems an apt moment to write another blog post. Not sure if I've mentioned it but Euro 2012 is next week, I literally can't wait. Every lunch hour at work has been spent reading about the squads going, watching old videos and of course swatting stats obscure and sad enough to repulse many an individual of the opposite sex (even desperate girls). As a result of my European Championship excitedness (is that a word?) and the fact that I've seen a million old videos I thought I'd make this week's 10 Things 10 Memorable European Championship moments. Can I just add that the qualification criteria has to be that I've witnessed them, meaning that, as I was only 7 and not that interested in football at the time, Marco Van Basten's volley (which you will no doubt see on any European Championship related TV show at the moment) has not made the list. Here are the the 10 things that have...

Denmark knocking Holland out on penalties - 1992
Unfortunately I can't find an individual clip for this one so you'll have to watch the BBC's montage of the whole tournament. This stuck in my head for two reasons, the first being that Euro 92 was my first European Championships meaning that I remember it all quite vividly. I can remember being allowed to stay up late as the game had gone to penalties and wanting the Danes to win, I've never rooted for the favourites, even as a child. The second reason being that I found it quite funny the Danish defender wins the shootout for them and celebrates by going round, and round, and round in a circle in the penalty area (3:10), sometimes it's the little things... This was also an early sign to the footballing world that the Danish goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel was going to be something special, just ask Van Basten.

John Jensen's goal - 1992
Later on in Euro 92 Denmark pulled off another upset beating the then seemingly impregnable World Champions Germany 2-0 in the final. I think Kim Vilfort got the 2nd but I'm not sure, in fact I don't think anyone's sure. All we ever remember is John Jensen, of Arsenal infamy, scoring a belter in the first half and some poor German defender trying his damnedest, in vain, to stop the ball from going in. Apparently it was Steffan Effenburg according to Frank Skinner and David Baddiel. As per Skinner and Baddiel's video Jensen was actually a terrible shot (he couldn't hit water in a boat) and football fans had to wait quite a few more years before seeing his next goal. Maybe that's why it sticks out as a memory for me.

Thomas Brolin justifies the BBC's selection of Barry Davies for the England game

"Brolin! Dahlin! Brolin!!!" - 1992
I've said it before and I'll say it again (although I haven't actually said it before on this blog, so this will be news to most of you), when Barry Davies commentates on a sporting event, good things happen e.g. Maradona's wonder goal against England in 1986, Great Britain against West Germany in the Olympic Hockey in 1988 "Where were the Germans?"... Well in 1992 Davies did it again, in England's last game in the competition and Gary Lineker's last ever game for England; Thomas Brolin went on a run and played a short pass into his team mate Martin Dahlin, who instantly flicked it back to him with the outside of his foot, Brolin then curled a first time shot into the top corner of the English goal and we were out. Not our finest hour but definitely one of Davies and the European Championships'. That goal is also on the BBC Euro 92 video above.

Definitely the most exciting thing to happen in Birmingham in the 1990's

Karel Poborsky's ridiculous scoop shot - 1996
I've seen people lobbed millions of times, as a goalkeeper I have been lobbed on a number of occasions, as my friends will happily inform you, I have never seen any player literally scoop the ball straight up in the air and get it to come down under the bar. Quality goal from a quality 90's player.

Davor Suker lobbing Schmiecal - 1996
Suker's lob was more of your conventional lob, what made it memorable for me was that number one it was against Peter Schmeichel who had been one of the stars of the tournament four years before (and had become a household name at Manchester United) and in addition to this it was the first time I'd really seen Davor Suker in action. I remember there being a lot of fuss about him prior to the tournament and in this game he most certainly announced himself at Euro 96 as this goal was the 3rd in a brilliant hat-trick. Love the resigned slump to the ground that Schmeichel does, as if to say, "Oh great! You've lobbed me, we clearly cannot stop you today can we..."

Zinedine Zidane's free kick - 2000
Barring the head-butt in his last ever game, the 2006 World Cup Final, I think it can be said that Zinedine Zidane always popped up when France needed him. Against Spain in the Euro 2000 Quarter Final France most certainly needed him and he delivered as always. I remember watching him bending in a quality free kick, to put France ahead in a pretty tight game, while I was getting ready to go out with my mates on a Sunday evening, a far cry from being allowed to stay up late and watch the Denmark v Holland penalty shoot out.

Figo's goal against England - 2000
In my opinion this is one of the best goals that has been scored at the European Championships, if not the best (yep, better than Gazza and Van Basten). The context of the goal makes it special in itself, England had raced to a two goal lead against the famous Golden Generation Portuguese side. Figo's goal started what was to be a remarkable comeback and one of England's biggest capitulations, they threw the game away quicker than a housewife does the rubbish on Boxing Day morning (is that a good one??). David Seaman didn't even move and I don't blame him, the ball flew in so quickly I think he only relised Figo had scored once England were taking centre. Bravo Luis!

The Coup leaders

Greece - 2004
I still can't believe this even happened! I can remember missing the opening game of the tournament, much to my disgust, as I had to go to Thorpe Parks for a mate's birthday?!? Who goes to Thorpe Park for their 25th?!? Grow up and watch the football! I rushed home expecting to find Portugal 2 or 3 nil up against the Greeks only to find that they had actually just pulled one back to make it 2-1. I remember being out in a bar and seeing Greece were 1 nil up against France and thinking, "Ooooh! They're in trouble now! The French are gonna make them pay..." I also remember... you get the picture, each time I thought, "This is it, the Greeks are out now..." they'd pop up and somehow scrape through, and this was all without the aid of a penalty shoot-out. My fondest memory of the whole thing was going to Southgate, in Enfield, about 30 minutes after they'd lifted the trophy (in case you don't know, Southgate has more Greek inhabitants, well Greek Cypriot, than Greece itself) and being greeted by a scene reminiscent of when an oppressive government, that had been in power for years, is finally overthrown in a coup. I kid you not, there were guys riding on the backs of trucks chanting, I swear at one point somebody fired a Kalashnikov into the air... ok maybe that didn't happen, but there were definitely guys on the backs of trucks.

Petr Cech becoming me for 5 minutes - 2008
Petr Cech is a great goalkeeper, more importantly he's a professional goalkeeper. I am a decent goalkeeper but more importantly I am a decent Sunday League goalkeeper. There is an unwritten rule in football with regards to crossing the ball. Against a professional goalkeeper you DO NOT cross the ball to near to him as her will gobble it up without even breaking sweat and you will have wasted offensive possession of the ball. Against a Sunday League goalkeeper on the other hand, stick it right above him as he's probably still hungover, often carrying a bit of extra weight and therefore not very agile and his hands are probably about as safe as Afghanistan is as a holiday destination, and you never know what'll happen... Back in 2008 against Turkey Petr Cech got confused and assumed the role of a Sunday League goalkeeper (5.08) just to be on the safe side. Turkey, who were heading out, went through and the Czech Republic, who were heading through, went crashing out. And Cech is probably still giving it all of the usual goalkeeping excuses that we Sunday Leaguers use, "It was the wind...", "The ref should have given a foul...", "The sun was in my eyes..."

Holland tearing Italy and France a new one - 2008
I'm aware that both France and Italy had disastrous World Cups and were both back home before you could say "ageing flops" but when Holland were drawn against them at Euro 2008 they were both finalists from the previous World Cup. As a result I did not expect Holland to tear both teams to shreds especially seen as the Dutch, much like the Spanish, had up until recent times flattered to deceive at major international tournaments. Playing pretty football and scoring decent goals then folding faster than an origami artist as soon as they faced decent opposition. To be fair they did mess up in the Quarter Finals against Russia despite their dazzling displays in the group stage but I was very impressed.

So that's it. 10 magical European Championship moments, for anyone who can think of more notable instances that the competition has had in the past 20 years, tough! I am aware that I've not included Gazza's goal against Scotland, McAllister's penalty where the ball moved as he was going to take it, Ibrahimovic's back-heel against Italy in 2004 and his driven shot against Greece in 2008 (both events that ITV refuse to accept even happened), Maniche's goal from the short corner against Holland in 2004, Rooney powering through Croatia, England crumbling AGAIN against France in the last minute in 2004 and the Portuguese goalkeeper Ricardo having the audacity to save Darius Vassel's penalty bare-handed then tuck the winner home seconds later. Fact of the matter is that there have been so many memorable moments in the last 20 years and tons more before then too, that is why I can't wait for next Friday. Bring it on!!