And that was the Euros...

England won it the hard way, didn't they? And being honest, after losing their first game in the group stage, they looked very unlikely winners. In fact, my hunch was Spain would win. 

And yet, and yet, England somehow won all three knockout stage games while only holding a scoreline lead for one minute in six hours of football. Somehow they survived a penalty shoot out where three players in a row missed their spot kicks. Somehow they kept coming back and kept coming back and grubbing wins. Until they lifted the trophy.

My overall feeling is that there is something more heroic in not being the absolute technical best football nation and yet still dragging yourselves over the winning line time and time again. It makes for drama at least. 

And we did have drama. The two goals in three minutes against Sweden, Lucy Bronze strapping herself up like a warrior and then hammering home a penalty in the shoot out, the beyond late equaliser against Italy and the last gasp injury time penalty that won the game, Beth Mead's slip in the shoot out at the end of the final and the missed retake, and then another comeback to win the game and the tournament and the trophy. 

These are all memorable moments from a thoroughly enjoyable tournament. It took 30 games before we saw a 0-0 score-line and that game was settled by a goal in injury time. Compared to the turgid men's tournaments we have had recently, this was non-stop action. 

I may have been a bit dismissive of Cymru's Euros campaign in my previous post about the Euros. One thing that did occur to me was that the women's team have managed something the men's team never did and that is to qualify for a 16 team Euros finals. The men's team first qualified for the finals in 2016 - when there were 24 teams in the competition meaning eight more spaces up for grabs. (Soccer nerds will tell me that Cymru also qualified in 1976 because they were eliminated in the quarter finals, but only four teams appeared in the "finals" that year so quarter finals were effectively the last qualifying round for the finals.)

I asked Cathy what her most memorable moment of the Euros had been and she said Jess Fishlock's goal for Cymru against France. It was super fitting that Jess scored Cymru's first ever goal at a finals tournament, as she has been a superb leader for the Cymru women's team for many years. There was an interview with her dad on the BBC a couple of days later and seeing him trying to keep his emotions in check while on camera brought a lump to my throat. 

Hannah Cain's goal against England was a better goal than Jess's toe poke against France. But it came at the wrong end of a hefty defeat. Although, I still maintain the penalty that set England on their way to victory was a terrible decision. England got very lucky to be gifted the lead there and I think that changed the entire direction of the match. 

I'm not sure what my most memorable moment was. I didn't see Jess Fishlock's goal because I wasn't able to watch the game. I've mentioned some of the England moments already. Germany's Ann-Katrin Berger's incredible save to prevent an own goal against France was an immense display of goalkeeping - possibly one of the best saves I've ever seen in a live televised game. 

The real test of how good a tournament has been is how you feel at the end. I enjoyed England's win. But I also felt sad that the finals were over. It's been brilliant football, engrossing entertainment, nail-bitingly tense, and now... it's over. But always to be remembered as a captivating tournament to watch. 

One game left of the Euros

Euro 2025 been a very enjoyable tournament and, now, the wall-chart waits for one final update.

Cymru had a difficult group and were always going to find it hard to get any points. They scored their first ever goals at a Euros final, including a beaut against England, but there wasn't much to cheer. 

After Spain's first match, I thought they looked likely tournament winners. However, Germany pushed them all the way to extra time in the semi-final. Germany were the highest ranked team Spain had faced, so maybe Spain aren't so fearsome after all.

I didn't think England would make the final, especially after they lost their first game in the group stages. They actually went into their final group game with a microscopic chance of going out, but made no mistakes with a comprehensive victory over Cymru.

England's quarter-final against Sweden saw them claw back a two goal deficit and win a truly awful penalty shoot-out. Then in the semi-final it took a 95th minute equaliser and a 119th minute penalty to edge past Italy. Two games where they came from behind to win the hard way. 

Will their fortune hold out on Sunday in the final? It's a rematch of the World Cup final two years ago. I'm hoping for a good game!

European Championship Final preview

Shrewsbury Town flag!

I haven't posted much about the Euros, but suddenly England are now in the final. This seems to be against many people's expectations (including mine!) as the team hasn't exactly lit up the tournament with scintillating football. (Spain, the other finalists, look scarily good.)

Whatever happens on Sunday, England will make history - either winning the Euros for the first time or being the first country to lose two finals in a row. The second option isn't the sort of history anyone would want. But it's still remarkable.

I missed England's quarter-final win over Switzerland last Saturday because I was driving back from Oxford, where I had seen Barry Town get hammered 9-0 in a pre-season friendly. 

I listened to the game on the radio on the way home and arrived back at my house just after the penalty shoot-out concluded. Driving while trying to listen to commentary on a penalty shoot-out was a novel experience and not one I want to repeat.

Unfortunately, a fixture clash meant I missed last night's semi-final as well. Instead I was at a meal in honour of a former colleague who is leaving a hospital diabetes service after 20 years. There was a chance to follow the action as the game was on in the bar of the pub we were in. 

I got into my car after the meal. There were 5 minutes to go in the game. The score was 1-1 and I thought if it went to extra time and penalties I might get home in time to see the shoot out. But it didn't even go to extra time...

Instead Ollie Watkins, who had come on as a sub, scored an incredible goal on 89 minutes and 59 seconds that effectively won the game for England. Fun fact: a few months back I saw Ollie Watkins at a football match when I went to see Truro City play Torquay United in Gloucester. And now he's England's hero...

As I have listened to both England's recent wins on my car radio, I am wondering how much England-supporting friends would pay me to sit in my car on Sunday night and listen to the final on the radio because it seems to bring good luck. I asked the question on Facebook and so far the highest offer is 57p.

Maybe I can watch from the couch. Fred, my Mum's dog has been pressed into service as a lucky mascot for a few of the games. He might bring more luck than I will.

I've seen a lot of posts on social media (mainly by my brother) saying "It's coming home!" That's a reference to a well-known song that was massive when England hosted the Euros in 1996, 28 years ago. (Maybe it is time for an England win.)

Also, if it does "come home" then that's the end of that mantra. Next time round it'll have to be "it's staying home!"

More freebie football stickers

My friend Gawain, who normally sources me baseball cards, sent me some freebie packets of Topps official Euro 24 stickers that he had picked up at a trading card show. These are different to the free ones I got in M&S last month.

There were three stickers in each pack - with no shiny badges or rarer variations included. Fair enough, they were free after all.

The stickers themselves are interesting. Players for England and France have only their faces shown whereas players for other teams are shown in full kit. I suspect this is due to licensing as Panini are doing an England sticker collection, for example, so they might have exclusive rights to showing the kit.

The Germany players might also be "heads only" - but Bastian there was the only Germany player I got in the packets, and he is a "Legend", not a current player. There are three marked spaces for legend stickers on the Germany pages and Germany seems to be the only team to have them.

There are other stickers too, including illustrations of the stadium and the official ball designed just for this European championship. Every country has a double-sticker of landmarks and architecture representing it. I got both halves of the Slovakia picture.

The double stickers give a choice of lining up the design or the edges. I've made sure the red border lines up here which shows just how off centre the stickers are compared to each other. It's only about a millimetre, but it's very noticeable.

I am resisting the urge to start buying these stickers, especially as I really enjoyed opening these free packs. 

Well done England - Women's World Cup 2015 review

I watched more of the Women's World Cup than I expected to, mainly because England did better than expected. I started the tournament wanting Germany to win (as with the men's tournament last year), but England gradually won me round. (And of course, they have a Welsh manager so really their success is success for Wales too.) So, when England beat Germany for the first time in 20 attempts to win the third place play-off, I felt pretty happy.


I'll pretty much watch any football (as my season review for 2014-2015 shows), but this wasn't watching football for the sake of it. There was some good stuff being played and most of the time without the gamesmanship and injury-feigning that bedevils the men's international game.

I have some criticisms though. For one thing, the use of astroturf seriously damaged the aesthetic. Balls bounced oddly, or not at all, or fair flew across the surface at untrappable speeds. Clouds of black rubber bits were kicked up by the players. They were awful surfaces and didn't help enhance the image of the women's side of the game.

There were some duff referees as well. This happens in the men's tournaments as well because they want to include refs from all the FIFA federations. But, frankly, there is a world of difference between refereeing in a top European league and reffing in Oceania or central Asia. Some of the refereeing teams were out of their depth here, and this was possibly exacerbated by the use of female refereeing teams only. As with football, women's officiating is some steps behind the men's game, so the inequity between countries with professional leagues and countries that barely have a competition is even more marked in the women's game.

Finally, broadcasting-wise, it was great having mainly female pundits and anchors. But why they needed to ship male commentators (including the incredibly annoying Jonathan Pearce) out to Canada is beyond me. It could be argued that putting it's regular commentators on duty showed the BBC's commitment to treating the women;s game equally. But it felt like the BBC lacked faith in its audience. We'll watch women play football, but we won't listen to women talk about it. One thing I do hope is that the BBC will now use some of the very talented and knowledgeable women players from the world cup studios on shows like Match of the Day. They were so much better than the usual rent-a-gobs.

Laura Bassett is my favourite England player at the moment - in both the men and women's games. In the match against France she got elbowed in the face, got up and carried on, developing a black eye as the game progressed. She was very focussed, almost frighteningly serious during matches, so it was lovely seeing her smiling with her third place medal, especially after she had conceded the last-gasp own goal in the semi-final to gift Japan the victory. Anyone who can go out and play straight after that deserves a medal and she got one.

Lucy Bronze's goal that won the game against Norway was my favourite goals in all the games I saw. Not just because it was England, but because it was a 'worldie'. You don't see many worldies at World Cups, so this was a genuine rarity.



So that was the FIFA World Cup for 2015. We had one last year too. I can get used to this. What's happening next Summer?

My favourite moments of the World Cup

The World Cup 2010 is over and gone, with a final that will be remembered more for its brutality than anything else. Referee Howard Webb described it as two hours of hell after he had to dish out 14 yellow cards. He could have given more, and really its amazing only one person got sent off.

But as the dust settles on Spain's triumph, what will I remember from this world cup? Well, here are a few...

1) Calamitous England

Rob Green's despairing flap after he spilled the ball to let the USA equalise in England's first game, followed by his faceplant into the grass in shame, was only equalled by John Terry's fish impression as he dived and contorted his body against Slovenia. See if you can find a slow-mo replay on YouTube somewhere and prepare to laugh.

He didn't even get the ball.

2) Great finishing from Germany.

Miroslav Klose's side-foot for their fourth goal against Argentina was truly world-class. And they demolished England with a powerful running game. Spain had to sacrifice their creativity to smother the Germans in the semi-final to scrape a win.

3) Ghana's last minute penalty miss

Drama by the bucketload after Suarez's handball, which will no doubt be played repeatedly on World Cup clipshows in future.

4) Giovanni Von Bronckhorst's long-distance goal against Uruguay

I simple couldn't believe that went in. An amazing goal.

5) Paul the psychic octopus

When national news networks interrupt their programming to bring you the predictions of a cephalopod, you know the human race is starting to lose it slowly. Apparently he now has his own trophy...

It's been a great World Cup so far

I've said this a few times to people, but I feel I have really conected with the World Cup this time around. I can't remember much of the 2006 World Cup. I can recall England scraping a win against Trinidad & Tobago, and Ronaldo getting Rooney sent off, and Zidane's inexplicable headbutting of Marco Materazzi in the final and that's about it.

But this time round there seem to have been some really memorable things.

First off, England were an utter crapfest. I know I'm only saying this now, but my wife and my Dad are both witnesses that I predicted England wouldn't get out of their (ridiculously easy) group. Okay, I was wrong on that, but they barely scraped it, and then they met Germany.

That's another thing, I haven't seen a German international team play the way this team play - with pace and verve. Normally German sides play percentages, build from the back, dominate the midfield and score from set pieces.

This side has the usual Germanic swagger, but when they play on the break and pass the ball into the feet of the runners it's joyful, irresistible football. Oezil's dinked chip-pass to Klose for the fourth goal against Argentina was magical, as was Klose letting the ball drop to within a whisker of the grass before side-footing the volley home. Watch it and watch it again to see an absolute masterclass in finishing.

I never thought I'd get excited by Germany, but I'm excited.

There have been spectacular exits too. France self-destructed in the group stages. Italy were put out by relative minnows in their group too. England, well, stuttered into a mismatched game with Germany that ended in hefty defeat - a game that will live on in infamy for a goal that should have been but wasn't given. Holland unexpectedly put out Brazil.

And then there was Ghana's misfortune. To miss a penalty in injury time, for the most blatant handball blocked shot on the line I have ever seen, is one thing. But then to lose the penalty shoot-out five minutes later was a travesty of justice. I watched the game and could barely watch Gyan take the penalty. Somehow I just knew he would miss. And when it went to penalties I knew Uruguay would win. Why? Because football is a bastard mistress who torments her lovers with harsh injustices.

Which of course is why we love it so.

And tonight's game had drama too. Holland got a goal, loosened up, let Diego Forlan score, and got edgy, then got a fortuitous goal and scored a third through one of the best headed goals ever and were enjoying themselves again. Until injury time, when Uruguay worked a training ground set play and bizarrely scored, to set up a tense final three minutes when it looked like the most unlikely comeback ever might just happen.

Fortunately for the Dutch (and my Holland-supporting spouse) Uruguay's persistence didn't pay off. Holland are through to their first World Cup final since 1978 and have as much chance as anyone of lifting the trophy.

And tomorrow they will find out who they play in the final: Germany or Spain. I think it will be the Germans, but Spain may do better against European opposition than they did against Paraguay in the last round where they edged out a very close game 1-0.

I actually feel excited.