hi

I have been away but have been watching most of the games.

I have to say that as far as I have seen so far the title will be between either Germany or Spain. Both teams have been impressive and in completely different styles.

They both have one decisive thing in common. They are fantastic off the ball. Their backing up and running into space to receive the ball is fantastic. Both teams seem to have twice as many players on the pitch at times than their opponents.

England have been very patchy and I guess that is what most of us expected with all the problems and politics that have hindered their progress this season.

I feel that Young, apart from his part in the goal in the first game, has been weak, Milner too has promised but not really delivered.
Rooney should add some class and be a huge scoring threat in Ukraine.

As we saw in Group A we are at the business end of the Group matches and each game is like a knock-out game now. Who would have thought that Greece would have beaten Russia?? And in doing so knocked them out of the competition.( As Michael hinted; in most competitions Russia's goal difference would have carried them through ).

Looking forward to Holland v Portugal tonight - despite not winning a point yet Holland can secure a place in the quarter-Finals if results go their way !!! Germany look a good bet to go through but you can almost toss a coin with the other three.

Great competition so far - not the greatest football but boy is it exciting sorting out who is going to go further.

Cheers

MikeL2