Spain are actually playing a striker not Torres but Negredo. I hope Portugal win tonight but I expect Spain to be to good for them. I think only Germany are good enough to beat them.

Been mostly portugal first half. Portugal are having our luck with blind ref. 

Just looked at the text on this, is it going to be penalties again?

Just looked at the text on this, is it going to be penalties again?

It's a shame that Ronaldo and Spain couldn't have gone out this evening. I utterly despise both.

score your penalties with your best strikers and goal scorers first dont save them till the end when you dont need them annoying game actually read 2 news papers and the BBC news home page couldnt get in to it Spain are a bit irritating to watch

Am I disappointed, 50-50, I would prefer them both to have been eliminated, however I'll settle for the loss of Portugal

Boring Spain again they are not as good as they were 2 or 4 years ago so are more defensive, makes it quite dull to watch to say the least. If Germany win tomorrow which you would expect, they should give them a real game.

Disgraceful monekey noises heard on the Beeb during the game. Then I realised it was Martin Keown trying to commentate.

Disgraceful monekey noises heard on the Beeb during the game. Then I realised it was Martin Keown trying to commentate.

Sure it wasn't that Mandarin speaking chap jamie carragher

Disgraceful monkey noises heard on the Beeb during the game. Then I realised it was Martin Keown trying to commentate.

Sure it wasn't that Mandarin speaking chap jamie carragher

Cerm down cerm down.

Disgraceful monkey noises heard on the Beeb during the game. Then I realised it was Martin Keown trying to commentate.

Sure it wasn't that Mandarin speaking chap jamie carragher

Cerm down cerm down.

Boring Spain again they are not as good as they were 2 or 4 years ago so are more defensive, makes it quite dull to watch to say the least. If Germany win tomorrow which you would expect, they should give them a real game.

This is finally gaining some traction, I've been saying it for a while and don't actually think they have been great to watch at any time. I don't really agree with short 1 or 2 yard passes for statistics sake. We might need to change the passes stats to anything over 15 yards counts and try to work out possession in some way that is meaningfull, then Spain would be down the end that England are in on the stats table.

I never thought I would EVER, EVER turn over whilst watching football, but I gave up after 58 mins and watched the T20 game. Worst game of the championship by a country mile.

COME ON GERMANY

Boring Spain again they are not as good as they were 2 or 4 years ago so are more defensive, makes it quite dull to watch to say the least. If Germany win tomorrow which you would expect, they should give them a real game.

This is finally gaining some traction, I've been saying it for a while and don't actually think they have been great to watch at any time. I don't really agree with short 1 or 2 yard passes for statistics sake. We might need to change the passes stats to anything over 15 yards counts and try to work out possession in some way that is meaningfull, then Spain would be down the end that England are in on the stats table.

I never thought I would EVER, EVER turn over whilst watching football, but I gave up after 58 mins and watched the T20 game. Worst game of the championship by a country mile.

COME ON GERMANY

The last 28 goals scored by the waiters have come from inside the box.

Sums it up really.

Poland on high alert after explosives found

Poland's security services have lifted their readiness level ahead of the final Euro 2012 match on its soil on Thursday as a precaution after a border patrol found explosives on a raft on a river on its border this week.

"We have received certain information that pointed to a potential appearance of a terrorist threat," said Interior Minister Jacek Cichocki. "But there is no indication of a concrete danger for a specific place or person."

Cichocki said the higher readiness level meant that all Polish security services, not just those involved in Euro 2012 operations, would be on higher alert.

Some 6,000 policemen are scheduled to be in Warsaw ahead of Thursday's semi-final between Germany and Italy, in line with previous matches that took place in the capital.

Local media reported that a border patrol had intercepted a raft with some explosives and a cellphone that had the photo of Warsaw's National Stadium in its memory crossing the Bug river on the border of Poland and Ukraine.

Such rafts are often used to smuggle items across the border.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/poland-higher-alert-explosives-found-122152230--sow.html

It would seem that the papers have fallen out of love with Spain

Spain's underwhelming performance in the Euro 2012 semi-final dominates Thursday's sporting headlines.

The defending European and world champions continued their run of dull displays in their semi-final against Portugal, and The Times's Oliver Kay sums up their tournament nicely: "Even as their crown slipped last night, this extraordinary generation of Spanish footballers just about retained their sense of majesty... By their own sky-high standards, Spain have disappointed at Euro 2012. By anyone else’s standards, they are worthy finalists."

The Daily Mirror goes much further in its criticism, calling it, "the night when football fell out of love with the world and European champions.

"The number of empty seats in the Donbass Arena was supposedly a reflection of the cost of travelling to Donetsk. But the stayaway fans might just have become fed-up with Spain’s football philosophy. Their tiki-taka short passing game is easy on the eye but maybe football’s love affair with the Spanish is fading. 

The Guardian paper's Richard Williams, usually so full of praise for the Spanish game, also sticks the boot in over the accusations that Vicente Del Bosque's man have made football boring: "So are Spain really killing football? A large section of the below-capacity crowd in the Donbass Arena seemed to think so... There is a soft, frictionless quality to the style known as tiki-taka which makes it feel as though Spain are playing in carpet slippers and which robs the game of the explosive, percussive element that has always been a part of the game."

He also makes an excellent point about the increasing hysteria about Spain's always impressive passing and possession statistics: "They are also the most statistics-friendly team of all time, and it is hard to know which came first: their dominance or the current obsession with the sort of research that tells us they played 66 through-balls in their first four matches of the tournament.

"At half-time came the news that their pass-completion rate was 85 per cent lower than they had managed in any of their previous matches in the tournament, but you didn't need a nerd with a calculator and a Twitter account watching the game on telly at home in Potters Bar to tell you that. 

Oh dear

Disgraceful monekey noises heard on the Beeb during the game. Then I realised it was Martin Keown trying to commentate.

Hey hey C'mon