We could still give Europe one more jolt
EUROPE is rattled, and is all the better for it. Old certainties are shaken, and in the chaos, opportunity blooms.
Spain and Germany have not looked the forces of old, and the manner in which Croatia picked apart the Spanish was especially jolting. Italy threatened to assert their traditional control, but the shallowness of their reserves as evidenced last Wednesday night has damaged their stock.
We shall know plenty more about France by tea-time today, but England are an intriguing case. In weeks like this, Roy Hodgson is cursed with a lugubrious face that means he meets every situation with a mournful countenance.
It is a dream for photographers, who could aim their lenses at him as he sat slumped against Slovakia, his face collapsing in on itself as the minutes ticked by. Iceland are now being painted as dangerous last-16 opposition, but the truth is England are almost certain to make the quarter-finals.
There, France will probably await, and it is difficult to argue that the hosts have looked appreciably better than Hodgson’s team. England have more attacking choices to pick from, while if both sides had porous-seeming defences at the start of the competition, the form of Eric Dier has strengthened English security.
The prospect of an Ireland-England meeting should not be discounted, but the dream is Ireland-Iceland in St Denis on this day week. Remember the old precrash jokes about the difference between the two countries (one letter and six months)? The last laugh could be ours.