Forza Italia!

I had no plans to watch the Germany v Italy semi-final last night. It was an 11pm kick-off and I had been up since six yesterday morning. But 10.15 came and I was still awake so I went down to ye local club. It was full, they said, but they'd just re-opened J-Blues, a failed nightclub-type place attached to the main building. So I went in there and had my pick of the seats - there were only two other punters in the room. That soon changed as more people arrived and by the time the game started it was full, but not uncomfortably so.

And what a match! Although goalless until the dying minutes of extra time, both sides played proper football. It looked like we were going to have the almost-inevitable penalty shootout, but miraculously Fabio Grosso found the net in the last minute of extra time, and seconds later Del Piero did the same. Unbelievable!

So Germany are out, but they can be proud of their performance.