Sepp's Double Vision

What sadness it is to have to say goodbye to Fat Phil Scolari and his formation diving team. And such irony. The Portugal side that despatched England in a penalty shootout and spent a large proportion of their World Cup semi-final crumpling amateurishly to the ground and looking up hopefully in expectation of conning themselves a spot kick have been denied a place in the final by, of all things, a penalty – correctly awarded despite routine protests from Carvalho and expertly converted by Zidane.

They left the field with the contempt of thousands of fans who regard them as cheats ringing in their ears yet still there is no sign of remorse. They have, it seems, learned nothing and in the light of their cynical and dishonest approach to the game, which was not worthy of the chance to contest a World Cup semi-final, the vast majority of genuine football fans will be praying that they do not win the third place play-off against Germany.