Hail Zeus

For those not up to speed with Classical Mythology, Zeus was the ruler of other gods, and so tonight the man they call Zizou, the most famous Muslim footballer in the world, the prophet from the projects, bestrode the World stage and with clinical use of his right boot killed off Portugal.

Okay, enough of the Stuart Hall already.

As a match this was never far from interesting, a match of such little physical contact that you could be forgiven for thinking the Uruguyan referee had been told by Sepp Blatter under no circumstances was he to book one of the ten players who came into the match on a yellow card. There were 26 fouls, which was two fewer than the England v Portugal game on Saturday but at times it looked as if the players were scared to make physical contact.

Interestingly the match hinged on the slightest of physical contacts, Carvalho catching Henry with his outstetched leg. On BBC Radio Graham Taylor said Henry slipped and it wasn't a pen, on BBC TV Mark Lawrenson said it was a clear penalty, on Baldinio's Blog, I say it was a penalty. As the second half wore on Portugal got more desperate, eventually sending Ricardo forward for a couple of corners, but ultimately they didn't look like scoring.

And so from Munich to Berlin and what promises to be more like a Serie A game than an international match with France including five players who play or have played for Juventus.

My heart says France, my head says Italy.