The Dutch were somewhat fortunate to reach the semi-final, and needed to produce a good performance to beat the host nation Portugal. They didn't. In fact, the first 45 minutes produced some of the most dire football I have ever seen from a Dutch team. Portugal deservedly went in at half time 1-0 up.

The second half had to be better, but before the Dutch even started to get in the game Maniche scored an amazing goal, which could be the goal of the tournament. Unfortunately, so unexpected was it that the moment was completely missed by the director working for the host broadcaster, who was running an action replay of an earlier incident. We did see the goal a few moments later from several angles, but it's not quite the same thing.

There was another terrible moment for the Portuguese five minutes later when Andrade, attempting to clear a ball from the path of van Nistelrooy, only succeeded in scoring an own goal for Dutch. More worryingly for the Portuguese, it started a mini-revival for the Dutch side, who saw the chance of a comeback. Indeed, in the last half hour they put the Portuguese team under considerable pressure.

By this time most neutrals - and I count myself as a neutral because I'm not Dutch - had seen enough to know that the Portuguese deserved to win, or more to the point the Dutch didn't. You can't expect to play well in a major semi-final for just one third of the time and win, especially against the host nation who are gaining in confidence all the time.

Quite simply, unless you're a Dutch supporter, the better team won. And Portugal were better by some distance. Their passing was better, they read the game better, and played well as a team. Once again, there are clearly serious problems in the Dutch camp to make them play so badly in such a big game. I now expect - and hope - that Dick Advocaat will resign soon. My own belief is that the Dutch need a coach of a different nationality, because all the Dutch coaches of recent years seem to have succeeded in producing cliques rather than a settled team.

I have a feeling that the Czech Republic will beat Greece tomorrow, so we'll have a good final between them and the Portuguese. Frankly, they have for me been the two best teams in the competition, and I'll be happy whichever one wins it.

11:03:19 PM