The level of nervous excitement in our house was off the scale but after Ben Davies had made a wondrous clearance to deny Hamsik, Gareth Bale benefited from some questionable goalkeeping to put Wales ahead. Bale actually didn't have the greatest of games but Wales proved that they are not a one man team but a side with amazing team spirit with the bonus of a football superstar who causes fear in opposing sides.
England, on the other hand, played well (athough nowhere near as well as ITV and Clive Tyldesley was making out) and were unlucky not to come away with three points. Obviously events off the field have dominated the news reports but on a purely football note, England should still get out of this group. I don't think Russia will.
The early game saw one of my dark horses fail to look anywhere near as good as I had predicted. Albania looked devoid of ideas apart from lumping it forward and although Switzerland hardly impressed either their early goal was enough for the win.
Here's some other things I noticed yesterday...
- Switzerland's Johan Djourou has a permanently haunted face (possibly from spending so much time at Arsenal?)
- Skrtel's elbow in Williams' face was disgusting. Have any of those extra officials ever made a decision in any game?
- Is Peter Crouch now part of a Bee Gees tribute act? Those teeth!
- Although it got lost in the events surrounding the match, Clive Tyldesley's "Justice for the England eleven" comment after the goal was amazingly crass - even for him and ITV
As for today's matches, I've got a feeling that Turkey v Croatia will be an absolute cracker. I'm not entirely convinced by Croatia but I think they will have just too much for Turkey. I'm going for a 2-1 Croatia win.
Northern Ireland qualifying was incredible in itself but I think they will have a really tough game against Poland today. Robert Lewandowski will be expecting to get some goals - and I think he will. I'm going for Poland 3 Northern Ireland 0.
The final match of the day is our first chance to see if Germany are going to live up to the pre-tournament hype. I don't expect Ukraine to put up much of a fight though. Germany to win 2-0.
It must be said that I have not got one of my score predictions right so far. Maybe today?
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