Surprisingly, especially considering what was at stake, this was a rather uninspired game, don't you agree? But it appeared that Portugal could not get their shit together and they paid, terribly, for that; the final score was 3:1. There were a tremendous number of yellow cards awarded in this game, although I don't remember any red cards.
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Really, there was nothing at stake here, a pretty meaningless game, I found it more surprising that Germany put so much into it.
I thought it was a pretty exciting game myself. Lots of good shots stopped by good defense, and some excellent play from Germany. Portugal was inconsistent, much like the last game, and missed some excellent chances (though their one goal was fantastic).
Well, it obviously must have meant something to the Germans, including Michael Schumacher, who was in the stands.
It was an entertaining game. Ricardo should have been able to fend off the first goal. And Kahn should have been able to do something better than just sliding sideways on the Portuguese goal. Perhaps Germany is better off with Ballack on the bench.
Compliments to the ref. The Portuguese diving team finally got its rewards.
Don't know if Ricardo really could have stopped the first Schweinsteiger goal - it had a lot of lateral movement.
Diving worked for France (twice), but Ronaldo is young and he has time to get to Henry or Abidal's level. Games for 3rd/4th place are never good, players are tired, they just missed the chance to go into the final, so there is no big motivation. Schweinsteiger (pig climber?) was inspired and that made the difference.
It's the final that matters. And Italy got it.