Semi final, Germany v Italy

Needless to say we were going for Germany. And we were in the middle of both sets of fans. There was one exceptionally enthusiastic italian who took it as a personal insult everytime an australian walked in with german paraphenalia rather than italian. Our favourite aussies where those who had not only painted the ‘Italian diving lessons’ sign, but had bought snorkels. Stu, who had brought a skippy to every game and fended off large cash offers for him, had bought a lovely german mullet for skippy to sport. I’ve yet to hear if skippy made it to the final.

But in the end italy scored from open play. The Italians went crazy, the germans cried. The public transport organisation was terrible. But at least people were friendly, and mostly acclimatised to the heat, so we only saw one person faint, and no one was pushed down the large gaps between the train and the platform.

And i got to see Ballack, one of Chelsea's other summer signings.