The Final Group Gets Going

"From the Costas to the Canaries, from Cantabria to Galicia," Jonathan Pearce let's no cliche go unspoken as Spanish supporters get the start they must have been dreaming of, Raul is left on the bench. Anybody who has watched any La Liga this past year would have known the three outstanding home grown footballers in Spain have been David Villa, Fernando Torres and Carlos Puyol and all three made contributions to this match. The fourth goal was a bit special from Puyol's crunching tackle in midfield, his one-two with another bloke in a red shirt and then his cushioned header down for Torres to score from the edge of the box with a low shot to the goalkeepers right. As for the Ukraine well you have to feel sorry for Andriy Shevchenko, you wait eight years for a chance to play in the World Cup Finals only to play the last twenty minutes of your opening match alongside Sergei Rebrov.


















In the late afternoon kick-off its Africa v Asia as Tunisia meet Saudi Arabia. The Saudi players will be getting a house, a new car and the Shiekh's wife's recipe for lemon ice-cream as part of their bonus for qualifying. Neither side look like they believe they can win it which is a shame because it means we get to hear ITV's Jon Champion telling viewers that 'a draw isn't any good to either side' every five minutes. Like good sex the build-up is a slow tense affair and then all the excitement comes with a rush in the last ten minutes as Saudi Arabia's 105 year old balding wizard Sami Al Jaber scores to put his side 2-1 up and then two minutes into injury time Bolton's own beef mountain Jaidi Radhi scores with a header from inside the six yard box to send his team into raptures.




Sami Al Jaber indicates the number of Bentley convertible's he expects in return for his sides second goal.