Today is the big showdown

I've done the housework, the washing up, emptied the rubbish bins and played with the cats to wear them out. .. i don't want any distractions what-so-ever for the rest of the day.

If the phone goes; there's nobody here.

If the place suddenly spontaneously combusts ... euhhm

All of this for one reason - from about half an hour from now it's going to be non stop fooochabôl :-)

Today's the day we find out if France and England have just been faking it and are really as good as they believe themselves to be.

I'm less worried about Svenster and his gang, i've been saying at work this week that Portugal are going to get tonked 3-0 thanks to Joe Cole, Roonster and the inevitable Footy Spice free kick.

France however ... strangely enough i'm also quite confident for Les Bleus; they come alive when their backs are against the wall ... but well, y'know they are playing a Brazilian team that has an obscene amount of talent.

Although i've predicted that France will win (2-1), i've got a terrrrrible premonition/feeling that it's going to go to extra time and penalties ... gulp

If every thing goes to plan we're going to have a mouth watering England / France for the semis .. gulpity gulp .. there'll definitely be tears before bedtime on wednesday.

Then .. i really do feel like a kid at christmas .. we've got a Germany / France / England final.

Whichever teams make it through, we're in for a real treat . There's so much footballing history between all three teams (1966 for the brits & 1984 Schumacher/Battiston for the froggies) that we're guaranteed fireworks ...

Update @7.45 - At least we've gotten rid of Svenson


I just hope Brazil choke tonight

update @ 23.00

Yup, they did :@))

Update @ 1.00

There's a lot of noise down stairs on the road - cars hooting and tooting, people shouting and screaming, just like back in '98 ... i'm writing at 1.00 in the morning and people are still shouting "allez les bleus" .

I can't see portugal stopping the french team ... as for Italy; i think they're going to be caught out by "le jeu à double temps " of the french and Germany are rigourous (open to free kicks and yellow cards) but destabilised by teams that are capable of retaining the ball, percussion on the wings and frustrated at not having enough of the ball (Zizou, Ribery, Viera and Sagnol are all going to take knocks).

France are going to win the world cup for a second time, mais ne vendons pas le peau de l'ours ...

:-)