Day 8: Spain qualify and Greece go home. Ah, justice.

So after two games in each group, we already know all four group winners. While it’s impossible to deny that Portugal, Croatia, Holland and Spain deserve to have gotten through, I can’t help feeling that the new preference for head-to-head results over goal difference makes the groups less exciting than they could be. As a result of this, today’s potentially interesting Switzerland-Portugal game has been made completely irrelevant, and it could have been more had results changed just slightly over the draw as a whole.

But let’s not dwell. Spain secured their first place in the group by beating Sweden 2-1 thanks to a late, late goal from David Villa. Sweden will be disappointed but over the course of the game Spain were definitely the better side, having created much more than the Swedes and being refused what looked like a clear penalty for a foul on Silva just before half-time. Silva in particular was impressive, stepping up while Xavi and Iniesta failed to extend quite as much influence as they had over Russia, and the two strikers continued to work hard but without the top-quality service they’d gotten before. I was glad to see Fernando Torres score as I’d felt he’d deserved a goal against Guus Hiddink’s team, and while it wasn’t particularly pretty, his finish from a free-kick was clever under pressure. Iker Casillas didn’t have much to do in the Spanish goal but should have stopped Ibrahimovic’s goal – he got a hand on it but definitely had time and room to make more confident contact. Villa spared his blushes somewhat.

I’d been worried that Greece v Russia later that evening would be another terminal bore after the Greek showing four days previous, but to their credit they tried to attack…a bit more. Remaining for the most part tedious, unimaginative, and plain ineffective (witness Angelos Charisteas’ woeful attempt to head the ball in from Basinas’ wonderful free-kick), they should have been roundly thrashed by a superior Russia side, who were strong in defence and industrious in midfield, but nearly suffered by way of having all the finishing of this sen

So with Spain winners, Sweden and Russia will play in four days’ time for the right to meet Holland in the quarters. That could be a real cracker, and I’ve got a feeling now after the disappointing Sweden showing so far that, with Arshavin back, Russia could sneak that one. Today, Group A draws to a close, but with the simultaneous kick-offs I won’t be able to cover both games completely. I’ll be focusing on Czech Republic v Turkey, as it’s the only meaningful game being played, but will have to try to balance a bit more later in the week.

David Pleat Watch

To his credit, ol’ Pleaty had one of his better days watching Spain and Sweden, though he was denied a perfect outing by suddenly turning the Spanish right-back into a Russian, Sergei Ramos. His companion in the box, Jon Champion, was a worse offender by virtue of being a smart-arse. Trying to be clever with his Spanish pronunciations, he got David Villa right by interpreting the double L as a Y sound, but then got a bit too cocky and started referring to the left-back as ‘Capdeviya’. Unfortunately, the one-L’ed Capdevila is pronounced as it reads. Nice try, though.

Day 7: Wow.

What a day of football that was. Firstly, Italy 1 – 1 Romania. Of all my pre-game predictions, this was the one I least expected to get right, but somehow it came off. It was a fair result, as well, as both teams would have felt severely hard done by if they’d lost. Romania were more attacking than I’d expected but showed that they can compete on more levels than just backs-to-the-wall defending, Mutu in particular having an excellent game, harassing the Italian defence and grabbing a deserved goal from Zambrotta’s terrible header. The immediate riposte from Cristian Panucci only served to ramp up the excitement for both teams, and it could have gone either way.

I suppose I’d better touch on the Toni goal that was disallowed wrongly for offside – yeah, it should have stood. Other than that, the referee had a pretty good game, but Italy will feel very aggrieved. They will probably see it as karma that Mutu’s penalty was later saved by an excellent Buffon dive.

Basically, that could have been the only game of the day and I’d have felt good about it, but no, there was even better to come. Holland 4 – 1 France was by far the best game of the tournament so far, featuring more stunning Dutch counterattacking and a fightback from the French. I certainly felt throughout the game, even when France were bombarding the Dutch box early in the second half, that Holland could probably go and score another goal at will, which they then proceeded to do in jaw-dropping fashion. All the goals were impressive, Dirk Kuyt’s opener because he connected with the header while being wrestled determinedly to the ground by Florent Malouda (how did he get picked again after the Romania game, by the way? He hardly justfied his selection last night), Thierry Henry’s clever touch into the corner to make it 2-1 for its precision and subtlety, and the other three were all sparkling examples of playing on the break.

Gregory Coupet was unlucky not to keep Robin van Persie’s effort out – it was so quick and difficult to save but he got a hand on it and nearly kept the score to 1-0 – but he had no chance at all with the third and fourth. Arjen Robben’s instant reply to the French goal, even quicker than Panucci’s equaliser, was absolutely stunning. The angle of the shot was just insane. Since his introduction at half-time, Robben showed exactly what he can be week-in, week-out, but isn’t because of his penchant for moodiness, diving and disinterest – he was my man of the match. Finally, Sneijder’s finisher in the final minute of stoppage time was an unstoppable rocket executed after a perfect turn around the French defender. I’ll need to see them all again to decide on the best, as well as Sneijder’s goal in the Italy game and Ibrahimovic’s wonder strike the other day, but I feel my life is enriched for having seen that game. It was the perfect example of the best of international football – on its day, it’s infinitely more entertaining than any club game. Tomorrow can’t possibly top it – right?

David Pleat Watch

Italy v Romania was one of Pleaty’s better days, but of course it was that man Mauro Camoranesi who proved his kryptonite. “Caroramesi”, “Canomaresi”, and “Camaresi” all made appareances. We were also informed that Romania were using Mewtwo, the popular Pokemon, as their penalty taker. Hmm.

Day 4: Spain set the standard and Greece get what they deserve

As impressive as Holland’s performance against Italy was, it was mostly their superb defending and opportunistic counterattacking two or three times a half that made them the team to beat in this competition. They’ve now been overtaken by Spain, whose 4-1 win over Russia yesterday afternoon came from entire halves of scintillating attacking play that for sheer quality outshone the Dutch resourcefulness. Yes, Russia were poor, but they were made to look worse than they were by the partnership of David Villa and Fernando Torres, which lived up to all our lofty expectations. It does make you wonder why Torres was withdrawn ten minutes into the second half, though. (I told you Aragones was mad.)

We’ll probably have to wait until the quarter-finals to be sure if Spain are the real deal, as I don’t see Sweden or Greece giving their centre-backs the test they still need, particularly after having seen their stale game last night, which Sweden won 2-0. It was a very dull game, lit up briefly by Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s great goal from the edge of the penalty area (still second to Sneijder, but a worthy runner-up), but no amount of fireworks could make the Greek ‘football’ interesting. It was defensive to the point of incomprehensibility – spending 3 full minutes passing it between the three centre-backs at 0-0 thirty minutes in? Do they really intend to draw all three games to make it through? Mind you, they did look very limited in attack, but Charisteas, Gekas and Samaras were given so little opportunity to attack the defence that you have to wonder whether Otto Rehhagel is orchestrating this for a bet.

Greece got exactly what they deserved, and it will be a very tall order for them to get out of this group now. They may well beat Russia in their next game, who looked out of ideas without Arshavin and Pogrebnyak, but Spain in the final game? Not a chance. Good riddance.

Today we’re back to Group A, with Portugal-Czech Republic and Turkey-Switzerland. I’ll have a guess at 2-0 and 1-1 respectively, but I don’t expect any classics. Here’s hoping.