little skill but great on confidence

A positive to have come out of the England v Ukraine game is that we will no longer hear English commentators blabbering on about 2010 and goal line technology. 

While the Dutch lack the confidence to match their talents, we’ve simply got to applaud how, or where, the English find theirs. Having qualified top of their group D, with at times some amateurish performances, their reputable Guardian newspaper is already speaking of a possible semi-final clash with Germany. Funnily enough, we do not seem to hear the Germans speaking who they are likely to face in the semis but I am sure they too are hoping to face England and not ITALY, whom England is playing next. Also, did someone tell the French that a loss to Sweden would put them in second and face Spain in the Quarters?

Congrats to Jeremy and H Potter who both scored five points with the England game to bump Luke and Nestor out of the Top 3. Surprisingly nobody chose Sweden to beat the French (sorry Alex and Benjamin but that was soft). There are seven games remaining, and with the element of Extra Time looming, these games are critical in thinking clearly on how they are going to pan out. 

REMEMBER, if a game goes into extra time, then scores will be allocated based on the result after 120 minutes – penalties are not included.

On the Incentive Awards front, congratulations to Jeremy, H Potter, Duncan, Alister, Gavan (Joe will not be happy with you) and Nestor in their vision of predicting the Republic of Ireland as the worst team, though the Dutch were the biggest flops. By selecting the Netherlands to make the final, a few of you have bombed out of the Finalist Incentive Award and Jeremy is guaranteed in joining you after the next stage of matches. He has predicted Spain v France.

I’ll post my scores over the coming days but I will tell you now that I’m going for Portugal and Greece.

Good luck 

QF