I will not give up hope until the end of 120 minutes (if England are lucky enough to get that far) either. However, I am a realist and realise that Germany will probably do the job comfortably in ninety minutes. When push comes to shove, Germany always know that they will win and they do win. If that has to be - and it probably does - I hope it is over in ninety minutes this time, so that there can be no pretence that "we nearly won". We were played off the park in all the previous encounters and the Germans thoroughly deserved their victories - as they almost certainly will on Sunday. It is very rare that England has as many first choice players available as they do this time. The Germans have lost their captain Ballack and possibly also Bastian Schweinsteiger. The match will also probably be played in what are unusually favourable conditions (for a World Cup) for a European side. England have no excuses.
I would hate to contradict the usually shrewd McGrath on the subject of Germany's quarter final with Argentina. I will take the liberty of adding a caveat however. In the past two World Cups, Argentina were eliminated by teams with inferior football talent but with iron discipline and superb concentration. Those teams were England (2002) and Germany (2006).