That Bloke In The Big Smoke

From a tourist's perspective, Turkey would've been the ideal choice but our neighbours across La Manche will do just fine. [BBC LINK]

EDIT:
Hmm. There's gonna be an expansion from 16 to 24 teams in 2016. Fifty-one matches spread over a month. If England still can't qualify...

MATCH INFO

Die Mannschaft haven't won the World Cup or European Championship for twelve years, but tonight they produced a less-than-perfect performance to eke out yet another victory in the last four and propel themselves into their thirteenth World Cup or European Championship title match. Turkey were probably the better team and the German defence was found wanting on several occasions, but there's no doubting their attacking prowess and finishing touch. I wanted the Turks to go through and was devastated when Philipp Lahm produced a last minute scorcher. It reminded me of the first goal he scored in the last World Cup against Costa Rica, but from much closer range. It's now upto either Spain or Russia to give 'em a run for their money, and after their underpar performance tonight, we could be in for a thriller in Vienna if they're able to raise their game a notch or two.

Earlier, midway during the second half, the video images were lost (not once, but twice) all over the world due to a thunderstorm in Vienna. I don't know about non-UK viewers but we're very lucky here. The Beeb automatically switched to Radio 5 Live's commentary with the irrepressible Alan Green before switching back. It was then that I remembered the choice of watching the action without listening to the boring John Motson (as much of a legend as he is) and the redundant Mark Lawrenson. The footie was so much more interesting as soon as I kept the Radio 5 commentary while watching BBC One's video coverage. Can't wait for tomorrow night's match. Can we expect a replay of tonight's Belter in Basel? My money's on Spain, but I hope the Russians win. Unless Torres scores of course!