Yeah the way Podolski acted AND the grin on the refs face made me want to kick them in the teeth.

Heck, anyone who wants to beat the Germans that's fine by me. Today was the first game they really impressed me, though, even if Sweden didn't really turn up for big stretches of the match and that ridiculous sending off decision ruined the game. I agree the ref seemed to favour Germany quite heavily throughout. Since when is a bit of a powder puff tussle on the halfway line when the attacking player has basically kicked the ball away a bookable offence? Rubbish.

Every time I see Ibrahimovic I get more and more confused by his standing in the game. Without doubt the most over-rated player in world football, I think. You could call him the invisible man for the number of times he seems to completely disappear from big games, or when important times come around in the match. He might get some goals for Juventus but to be honest he hasn't even been worth his place ahead of Allback in this tournament. Far too often he gets possession and tries to do stupid, showboating things like silly flicks and back-heels when a much simpler ball is on, and he's never looked like a natural centre forward in front of goal, for me; also seems very poor at attacking the high ball with his head rather than with his foot, as he did in this game for one very respectable chance. Ljungberg tried his best and Larsson had a reasonable game except for that dreadful penalty. All in all I think Sweden didn't really turn up, they played for 45 minutes against England and dominated but otherwise I don't think they've had a very good tournament at all. It's a shame that the very good recent generation of Swedish footballers go out like that, when there doesn't seem to be a lot of young talent coming through to replace the likes of Henrik and Freddie, but at least they made the last 16.

American TV had a graphic saying that Germany has made the quarterfinals in 15 of its 16 trips to the World Cup. I had no clue their record was that solid. What kind of odds can you get before the WC starts for Germany to make the quarters? Remind me in 4 years to take the bet.

Anyway, I didn't catch much of the game, but it seemed like the Germans had the ball pretty much 90% of the time when I was watching.

That was a pretty sad excuse for a penalty shot. Sheesh. Put the thing on the goal and make the keeper do something at least.

So if you had to pick between Keeganm, Hoddle, Sven and Lagerbäck...?

Not much of a choice.! Tactically Hoddle was pretty good, far better than Eriksson, but as a man he was a total shit IMO, and the players didn't like him. Shearer is supposed to have asked him "Have you ever considered the problem might be you?", which coming from Mr Bland himself is really damning.

Keegan was totally useless, but at least he realised it soon enough. I don't know enough about Lagerback to comment on him.