I’ve not posted about Euro 2012 yet because I’ve not seen many whole games.

I did catch all of the England – Ukraine game last night, though. If Ukraine had had a striker they’d have won this. England rode their luck and not just with the ball over the line incident.

I take issue with the commmentators over that. In real time I couldn’t tell if the ball was over the line or not. Even with the benefit of the replay using the along the line view I couldn’t tell that the whole ball had crossed the line when John Terry kicked it out. Neither could the fifth official be sure. And he has to be sure to give the goal. It was only when Terry was stripped from the picture and the frame was frozen that I could tell – and how was I to know what other manipulation may have been done to the image? The line official didn’t have that luxury.

Still, roll on goal line technology.

It must be said Uefa haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory over the Niklas Bendtner fine and ban for ambush marketing vivs-a-vis racist chanting and inappropriate banners.

As to possible winners; who knows?

Spain look get-at-able at the back. If it weren’t for Iker Casillas they would have been going home early: both Italy and Croatia would have beaten them. They also seem to have developed this novel way of trying to win football games. It involves not trying to score goals. (To be fair Dumbarton have been using that system for donkey’s years; but not deliberately.)

Against Croatia the Italians did that Italian thing of taking a lead and trying to hold it. The only thing is their defence isn’t good enough these days to sustain it. Had they gone for the second they might have saved themselves a fraught third game. They looked good going forward against Spain though.

Greece? Not likely, but we’ve thought that before.

Germany look impressive and Mario Gomez has morphed from being the German Luca Toni and suddenly found goal scoring form in a tournament.

Czech Republic? I doubt they’ll have enough to beat Portugal who were too fragile at the back against Denmark. But do the Portuguese have enough striking options beyond Ronaldo to get to the final?

France were shown up against Sweden and must play Spain.

England are teed up to lose to a Mario Balotelli goal. They have exceeded their usual Euro performance in getting to the quarter-final, after all.

At this stage it looks like the Germans.

A useful little word has been languishing of late, disappearing even.

Maybe you can spot its omission/replacement in the following sentence I came across in Tuesday’s guardian. (That lower case g is still really, really annoying, by the way.)

“Stalwarts are noticeable by their absence: there is no John Terry, perhaps conveniently, or Rio Ferdinand in the ranks.”

Since Rio Ferdinand was not in the England squad for the game concerned, that “or” ought, of course, to be “nor.”

I have noticed frequently of late many lists of negative choices/options which have “or” inserted between them. I picked the above quote only as the most recent.

If a choice or option following a negative is also “not” then “nor” is more appropriate than “or.”

The negative is not or, it is nor.

So, English football is in a ferment because Fabio has gone and ‘Arry may be able to take over the reigns. Hmmm.

Fabio didn’t seem to need much to make him jump. Was it just because his bosses went over his head? He hasn’t talked warmly of captaincy in the past. Might he have been looking for an excuse?

Is it at all possible that he suspected the England team is rubbish and would not enhance his reputation in the European Championship this summer? (As they hadn’t at the World Cup in South Africa.) This is a competition, after all, in which England have a dismal record – except when they hosted it. (Now, where have I heard something like that before?)

While England players seem to be high performers at their clubs their international efforts are less memorable. Is that because, at their clubs, they are surrounded by excellent footballers who make them look good, while in the national team they only have – at best – competent footballers (themselves) around them?

The situation is a boon for the FA too. Any “failure” this summer can be attributed to the fallout from the Terry affair and they can blame Fabio for running off. Win-win.

The timing isn’t good though. ‘Arry has built a good team at Tottenham – with not that many Englishmen, you’ll note. He will surely want another crack at the Champions League* next season – maybe even a tilt at the Premier League title.

Who would want the poisoned chalice, though? The ridiculous expectations of the English press and TV pundits make the job of England manager not worth having.

* So-called.