THAT'S how you respond!!

If you arrive at a football tournament as favourites and somehow end up losing your first game despite dominating possession, do you:

1. put on an abject display in the second game?
2. decide not to play for your admittedly wacky, astrology-consulting coach?
3. stick to the principles that brought your first major football tournament?

Fortunately, this was heeded and Spain are now up and running - they can only get better.

What an abject display!!

A defense attorney will his instruct his client to wear white, why? Because white has a way of making even the most vicious, cold blooded, murderous thug look as if butter wouldn't melt in their mouth - convincing the jury of their client's innocence is then easier to do.

Last night, the men in white played as if they were raising a proverbial white flag. Not a single player emerged with any credit and it remains to be seen if they will even qualify from their group. Between now and Wednesday, Don Fabio needs to let the players summon their inner Bulldog - he could start by letting them play in red.

It's just as well

Having watched a lot of the matches at Euro 2008, I can honestly say that I'm relieved England didn't qualify. Given the verve of attacking football on display, England's stultifying style of play would have stuck out like a saw thumb. Don Fabio is the man to get them to play with an element of panache, after all he was the coach responsible for AC Milan's swashbuckling 4-0 demolition of Barcelona, in the 1994 Champions League final.