Torres and co drink the German’s milkshake in Vienna

The world’s media are making a big fuss about Spain finally breaking their 44 year spell without any silverware, and this could be a great sign for England: by the 2010 World Cup, we will have been waiting exactly the same amount of time for a tournament win…

Unconvincing Germans make the final again

Once again, Adrien Brody’s Joachim Loew’s side managed to claw their way to their sixth European Champions final, despite being the second best team on the pitch last night.

Seeing as nature decided the worldwide audience didn’t deserve to see the Miroslav Klose goal that put Germany 2-1 up, you can check it out by clicking the box above.

Great alternative to boring match highlights

I was fully intending on putting up highlights from the Italy/Spain Euro 2008 quarter-final in this space, but when it came down to it, I just didn’t have the heart to put Spoiler readers through it. Most of you wasted a good two hours that you can never have back last night - it may have picked up a little in the second half, but for the most part it was more tedious than the third Pirates film.

My call to find something slightly more interesting was answered by Pies, who have combined the worlds of dominoes, international football and awesome Europop soundtracks. At last!

It’s quite pointless, but then again, so was Alan Shearer’s attempt at analysis last night (”I’m backing Spain,” he told us several times in lieu of anything insightful about the game).

[If you simply must see how Spain defeated the Azzurri, click here]

German aerial strikes too much for Big Phil’s side

If you listened to chickendinner’s astute advice, you would have come away from last night’s quarter-final match a little richer. As the betting genii predicted, Ballack’s men were far too strong for Portugal, and as I predicted, Ronaldo waited less than a few minutes after the final whistle to start harping on about Real Madrid.

Russia and Spain complete the final eight

Last night in Innsbruck, some old Scandinavian men were given an early summer holiday by some spritely Russians. Elsewhere, some Dutch people were starting to get quite concerned.

Meanwhile, the team whose only Euro 2004 defeat was at the hands of Russia managed to lose all three of their games this time round. Bravo.

Germans and Austrians left scratching their heads this morning

On the shock German loss, this morning’s Sun newspaper lead with “Slaven Bilic’s side finally put a smile back on our faces by sticking it to the old enemy.” Presumably, if the tournament favourites had won, it would have read “Joachim Loew’s side finally put a smile back on our faces by sticking it to the old enemy.” Either way, seeing the side that defeated us twice in qualifying also defeat a quality German team was mildly therapeutic.

In Vienna, Austria were seconds away from joining co-hosts Switzerland on the reject pile when they nabbed a last minute penalty, keeping them in the tournament for a couple more days.

England’s second string expose schoolboy defending

Of all the things to keep a person up past their bedtime, a meaningless international friendly on a terrible surface against a laughably bad side ranks pretty low. Fortunately, I took the plunge, and even backed a 3-0 win at odds of 15-2, making the lost slumber all the more bearable. If you didn’t catch it, here’s the video highlights courtesy of 101 Great Goals.

(And if you fancy being as lucky and fabulously handsome as myself, check out chickendinner’s Euro 2008 betting guide.)