Euro 2008 -25

An exciting game however the result doesn't reflect the possession of the ball, number of corner kicks or shots on goal - just the goals scored.

I find myself concerned about the validity of the winning goal scored by the German captain, Michael Ballack. The free kick from the German left wing was awarded correctly by the referee (the same referee who was involved in the debated goal for Holland in their game against Italy). When it was played into the Portugese penalty area, there is no doubt that the goalkeeper got his postioning wrong and tried to deal with the ball which dropped too far from his goal line. The issue I have is that there was a blatant push with two hands by Ballack before he headed the ball and it wasn't spotted by the referee.

It was unlikely to be spotted by his Assistant as he was looking through Ballack's back and could not have seen the contact. The television cameras showed endless slow motion replays but I spotted it first time in real time. I couldn't however see the referee's positioning and it's possible Ballack took advantage of where he chose to stand as the free kick was taken. But this detracts from an excellent piece of teamwork which had lead to Schweinsteiger (back after his one match suspension for his dismissal against Croatia in game 11) scoring the first goal after 22 minutes. It had two or three quick interchanges in triangles between the German players down the left hand side and it was a lovely thing to watch. Klose added to his tournament total 4 minutes later taking the score to 2-0.

Despite going 2-0 down, Portugal fought their way back into this game and hammered the German defence with Chelsea's new player Bosingwa giving Lahm a torrid time down the German left. Just before half time this brought the reward of Nuno Gomes scoring but then in the second half Ballack's goal took the wind out of Portugal's sails. A late goal by Postiga was merely a consolation and Germany held out for the whole of the 5 minutes of added time to win 3-2. They will now face the winners of the Croatia and Turkey game being played tomorrow evening and their semi-final will be played next Wednesday.