And there you have it! The final will be decided between Italy & holders Spain. After a long, at times boring, semifinal on Wednesday night, Spain finally edged out their Iberian neighbours Portugal via a penalty shootout. Portugal looked dangerous going forward with Nani & Ronaldo threatening to score on multiple occasions. Iker Cassillas stood firm in the Spanish goal and his saves were important. After 2 extra period we still found it hard to separate the two sides and so penalties it was. Spain won 4-2.

Last night Italy beat a favoured German side 2-1 thanks to first half goals from Mario Balatelli. He was sharp, he was on form, on fire and it was his night. Germany were found wanting at the big game stages and faltered. At times it felt that the German coach’s tactics of rotating his strikers a lot probably cost them the match. Germany did push in the second half and got a goal back through a penalty in the dying minutes but it wasn’t enough. Italy looked sharper and deserved to go through.

So Spain vs Italy. May the better team win on Sunday night. And no penalties please.