France are through!

Not that I'm biased of course, but I'm so glad that those diving, cheating b**ds Portugal aren't in the final! Rather ironically Ronaldo is claiming that the referee was biased against Portugal, apparently because they're a small country! Such a hard life, try playing with an Argentine referee... Actually the bitterness has passed a bit, and I'm facing up to the fact that we (England) just weren't good enough really. Sven has a lot to answer for though, and I doubt he's looking forward to returning to England. Nor for that matter should Ronaldo - he'll probably get a right kicking when he gets back to Manchester...

The other ironic news was the Portugal coach Scolari blaming their loss on the fact that Portugal can't score goals. Guess the tactic of rolling around on the ground and holding out for penalties just wasn't quite enough for world class football, was it.

Anyway, watching the match was fantastic - we were in O'Corcorans again, or should I say outside - there's a tv set that faces onto the street, and with the warm weather we're having everyone stood outside to watch it - good job it's on one of the really wide boulevards - there was a huge crowd.

I've put some pictures below, although the whole lot can be found here on my photo album.

The celebration after the match was amazing! We had thought we were in one of the most crowded pubs on the street, but the moment the game was over, the whole boulevard erupted with people!

Here's some of the ways the french celebrate ;-)

Waving arms:

Holding flags:

Holding shirts:

Flares (not fires - just looks that way!)

Holding on to the front of cars:

and finally, burning all the rubber off your tyres!