The 3rd post

It's quarter-final d-day for England, but first a word or several dozen about the last match last night. Italy are justifiably through which could not be said about the match they played previously to Ukraine. Shevchenko was silenced and suddenly it looks clever of the Italy manager to take all his squad from the Italian league as they knew how to handle old Andriy. Overall, Ukraine will return to a hero's welcome in Kiev for going further than any other debutant at 2006 but it hardly set the pulse of the neutral going. Apart from the turkey shoot against a very poor Saudi Arabia, Ukraine have scored only one goal in four matches and that was a dubiuosly awarded penalty against a disappointing Tunisia side; if you fail to even score, you cannot expect to get too far.
So, now it's England vs Portugal. Let's hope it's not a grind as England's progress has been so far, but with a Portugal side on the pitch who seem to take as their cue the first line of 'Eat my goal!' ("I know no rules"), it shouldn't be dull.
Here's hoping.