Rather have a skillful ronaldo who can control himself and doesnt swear than a thuggish chav who swears and stamp on opponents.

Its a testimony to the strength of defenders at this WC that Neill, Gallas & Marquez have been left out and a testimony to the weak strikers that Luca Toni is there

Italy are the unluckiest European side of the last 15 years. They were eliminated in 3 of the last 4 cups by penalties, and 2 of them were by the eventual champions. France on the other hand have generally had extremely good luck (apart from 2002) in tournaments I hope Italy wins, but only because i feel the French have already won 2 major tournaments recently and dont really deserve a third. They are not that good.

Cannavaro has been immense throughout as has been Pirlo Zidane shone only in 2 matches, while I have no idea what Henry is doing there in that list

I wont be surprised if some English fans just choose to ignore your post. For them, diving is only bad when its commited by a Portugese player. Gerrard, and Owen have both blatantly dived recently and won matches after that. Oh and Terry dived against Barca but its all good because English players have a divine right to dive , dont they? People criticise Ronaldo for trying to influence the referee yet ignore it when Hargreaves does the same or Terry does it in the EPL Robinson is "clever" for trying to waste time against Ecuador and when Henry dives he is drawing a foul, but Ronaldo is scum for diving. Oh, and can we forgot how most English fans ignored the fact that Crouch scored against T&T after a clear foul

Here's from a neutral person. france were also pathetic yesterday with their diving and this is the 2nd game they are winning with Henry's theatrics. Its veyr easy to single out Portugal but Ribery and Henry were as bad last night France has wont twice after diving (Spain and Portugal matches). Italy ha s won one match after diving (Australia), so IMO you should be calling them the "diving French"

Deco has been absolutely invisible. Henry's dive was pathetic, and overall a poor game with little creativity by either side

I'm going for a 1-0 France win. Just cant see the Portugese scoring against the French defence.

This world cup has seen defenders and midfielders shien much more than wingers/strikers For e.g. Zambrotta, Miguel and Sagnol are all having excellent tournaments as right backs. Similarly Cannavaro is followed by Ferdinand, Carvalho, Gallas, thuram , as star performers. I struggle to think of a striker who had a "good world cup" apart from Klose

Sagnol & Miguel have both looked quite impressive as well.

Anyone else think the attacking play by Italy in ET was possible only because the dreaded Golden Goal didnt exist?

I used to think Terry was the best defender in the world. However, the World Cup showed Cannavaro is a whole class above Terry. Even though he is 5'8" he ensured Klose /Podolski never got more than a couple of headers toward goal. He is pacy, strong on the tackle, and looks reasonably comfortable on the ball.

Buffon Zambrotta Canavaro Gallas Lahm Pirlo Maxi Rodriguez Ballack Zidane Klose Torres

Dont know when, but as soon they start, you'll be hearing reasons on whyw they are justified and why Rooney should have been free to stomp and swear as much as he wants.

Lets look at it this way Jeffers in for Dickov Roberts in as a much needed second striker Mido? in for Bellamy If Pongolle signs, thats a bonus and gives us some strength in depth

I dont think England are any worse penalty takers than Portugal. In Euro 04, only one miss separated the two sidews. Its probably Lampards miss that set the tone for the collapse

Looks like a repeat of Euro 2000 Semi Finals France Vs Portugal Italy Vs Holland (Host Nation)

Really funny that so many posters are calling Ronaldo greasy scumbag who deserves to be driven out. Not sure what they think of Savage diving around or Pedersen's handball at Newcastle Yea sure, its very honest to stomp on balls, to push other players into the boards, and to swear at the referee every time a decision goes against you. The racism displayed by some posters is amazing. Engand is free to do what it takes to win games (Owen's dive in 2002), and its only when Portugal/Argentina do something similar that they become scum.

Lets not forget that Crouch scored after clearly fouling the T&T defender or that Owen dived against Argentina in 2002 or that Ronaldinho was sent off in 2002 even though the foul hardly deserved even a yellow card Its very easy to vilify Ronaldo but I am sure none of you would have criticised Gerrard or Lampard if they did the same after Rooney was stamped on. I was also peeved to see Maniche and Figo diving around yesterday, but I dont understand the selective criticism. England were cheated against yesterday but they also had a couple of major decisions in their favor in 2002. For that matter, Rooney didnt deserve anything more than a yellow.

Something to think over for all England fans who are quick to criticise Ronaldo: What exactly was Ronaldo supposed to do? Rooney stamped on a team-mate of his. Was he supposed to stand and admire it? Chuckle at the bulldog spirit of his Manchester United colleague? If Ronaldo had stamped on Gary Neville in similar circumstances and Rooney had piled in, we'd have salivated over the all-for-one-one-for-all spirit of England What exactly was Ronaldo supposed to do? Rooney stamped on a team-mate of his. Was he supposed to stand and admire it? Chuckle at the bulldog spirit of his Manchester United colleague? If Ronaldo had stamped on Gary Neville in similar circumstances and Rooney had piled in, we'd have salivated over the all-for-one-one-for-all spirit of England http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/worldcup06/200...me_ronaldo.html

Germany in 2006 WC is a lot like Egypt at the 2006 African Cup of Nations. 1) Host Countries 2) Not many star players except maybe 1 (Ballack/Mido) 3) Nevertheless, very effective as a team even though other teams have better players (Argentina, Brazil/ Cameroon, Ivory Coast) 4) Very good records in World Cup/African Cup 5 A coach who was a star striker for the national team and is extremely passionate about the team (Klinsman Shehata), those who saw Shehata's argument with Mido when the latter was subbed will know what I am talking about) 5) Egypt won and so should Germany

Nothing to do with playing ugly or beautiful, just the luck of the draw. Germany are taking the World cup, just look at Ballack and Lehman during the national anthem. They dont look like saying, "Hey, hope you have a nice vacation in Germany and dont forget to take the Cup" T The cup is staying in Germany. The only better team left is Brazil, but Germany wont lose in 2 consecutive finals to Brazil, because...erm because they are Germany

Italy look class and it will be very difficult for any of the remaining teams to defeat them in 90 minutes. When they play with XI players, they have some very convincing matches, like Ghana and Ukraine

Germany will knock Argentina out, but probably not in 90 minutes. It wil take ET/shootout and possibly a dodgy penalty, selective blindness by the referee to fouls/handball for Germany to win

How do you know England wouldnt have lost 3-1 to France as well??? Spaisn performance tonight was no way worse than England. Its just Englands luck they didnt face a tough team like France yet