No Surprises

Best Goalkeeper: Gianluigi Buffon - Made one great save against a clever Glen Johnson shot as well as saving a penalty. Again not a particularly great round for goalkeepers. Thought about giving it to Hart, but he made a couple of mistakes that could have cost England.

Best Defender: Glen Johnson - He has been a revelation this tournament, especially after such a poor World Cup in South Africa. Probably not first choice for the starting line up but having ridden his good luck in future star Kyle Walker's injury, Johnson has had a remarkable championships. Today he was by far the most solid in defence, constantly covering sweeping runs and making Cassano look very average as well as being England's best attacking outlet. I was close to giving this to Coentrao or Alba.

Best Midfielder: Mesut Ozil - Really shone against a shabby Greek team whom Germany must be upset at allowing to score twice. Ozil ran the show this week with his slick passing and close dribbling skills proving too much for the dogged Greeks who put in a Herculean effort to keep Germany to four goals.  

Best Striker: Miroslav Klose - There was no other striker who played well this week. Salpingidis was the next best striker and he was only good when he was moved to the right wing. His movement off the ball was superb and his build up play with the ball was great. His goal was nothing more than what he deserved from this game.

Best Match: England 0 - 0 Italy(p) - The first half of this game was the best half of football that I have seen in a long time without producing a goal. It was end to end, with both teams showcasing the quality players who are at their disposal. The game did turn into a one-sided affair after the break but after Chelsea's triumph in the Champion's League, you could never tell which team was going to go through. Italy thoroughly deserved to go through against a poor England team.

Worst Match: Spain 2 - 0 France - Is their anything to say about this match? I am definitely glad I went to a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert and recorded the game to watch the following day. Spain are a boring side but it is because the opposition feel the need to drop deep and Spain's game is based upon control of possession.

Surprise Player: Marco Reus - I was raving about Reus before the tournament but he seems unable to break into the German starting XI. However Low decided to alter his side to accomodate for the deep defending of the Greeks, giving Reus to showcase the talents which should stand Dortmund in good stead for a while longer. Hopefully he will continue to full fill his potential and break into the starting lineup where he deserves to be ahead of Muller.

Underachieving Player: Ashley Young - An awful performance from a player who is a coward in the face of the pressure of big games. Often found wanting, he has had an awful tournament which has exposed him for the strictly average player that he is. He hasn't got blistering pace and his dribbling skills are not particularly good. He has one asset which is his cross and for that he should have had an assist against Ukraine but it was not to be. Rooney or Cassano could also have been awarded this.

Best Manager: Paulo Bento - The Czech team never looked like they were going to break down this strong Portugese side. Bento played it just right even to the point of replacing Postiga with Almeida rather than Oliveira. Almeida did not play that well but it kept the shape exactly the same allowing Ronaldo to expose what is a weak Czech team.

Team of the Round:

--------------------------Buffon-------------------------

Johnson-------Ramos---------Alves-------Alba

Ronaldo--------Pirlo-----------Alonso--------Ozil

--------------------------Moutinho--------------------

----------------------------Klose-----------------------

Honourable Mentions - Lahm, Koscielny, Coentrao, Reus, Montolivo, De Rossi, Samaras, Salpingidis

Predictions

Golden Boot: Mario Gomez (Unchanged) - I was very annoyed that Gomez did not play against the Greeks as he was a waste in my fantasy team but he should be fresh and sharp against an Italian defence who did not have to deal with much against the English. If Chiellini is still injured, I think the Italians will find it very difficult to stop the mercurial striker from scoring again.

Player of the Tournament: Mesut Ozil (Previously Bastian Schweinsteiger) - He has been phenomenal once more and is playing incredibly well. If Germany are to win this tournament, this is the man to bring the trophy home. Schweinsteiger is playing deeper than I have ever seen him play, with Khedira even venturing further forward than him so Ozil will probably win this award. I think Iniesta or Pirlo are probably his biggest rivals for the award right now. If Hummels has a very good two games, he could be a dark horse for the trophy.

Winners: Spain (Unchanged) - Nothing (apart from Spain being knocked out) will sway me from this opinion. Germany are a fantastic football team and can still grow before the World Cup in Brazil but right now, Spain are the best team in the world by quite a bit.

Surprise Team: Greece (Unchanged) - No team surprised me in this round but the Greeks, after Samaras scored, had the Germans level and looked dangerous on occasion. Maybe the romantic in me wanted the Greeks to go through.

Overperformers: Greece (Unchanged) - Ditto (Unchanged)

Underperformers: England (Previously France) - France played badly once more, but they played badly against a team whom everybody plays badly against. England had a great opportunity to qualify as they were playing an Italian team who was missing their leader at the back in Chiellini and their biggest attacking threat in Giuseppe Rossi. They played overly defensive, looked physically unfit and Roy Hodgson got it wrong again on the big stage. His refusal to play three men in central midfield is ridiculous. It cost Fulham their one chance at glory but he did so well to get them to the final nobody complained which is fair enough. He did not play it at Liverpool and he got sacked as they could not perform to expectations. I am not looking forward to watching England play in the future as they are simply boring and poor.

Final Thoughts - Carrying on my point from above, I believe it is only a matter of time before Brendan Rogers gets handed the job. Instead of Hodgson, I would have preferred Martin O'Neill to take the reins or even someone like David Moyes. In my opinion Hodgson gave us no chance of winning and will continue to give us no chance of winning a trophy at international level as long as they continue to use this abomination of a system which relies on luck to be successful. England have not defended well in this tournament as they have given up chance after chance. The one match where they played well defensively was against France but in hindsight that was not as tough a game as it was thought to be. The Swedes and Spanish showed up France. England were shown up by a non-athletic but intelligent 33 year old superstar.