Germany are not quite as good as they think they are and Holland missed the opportunity to put them away and lost 2-1. Russian and Polish fans re-enacted scenes of hooliganism from 30 years ago while Portugal just nicked the points in a 3-2 thriller with Denmark.

The tournament is truly up and running and now Ireland face the challenge of staying awake while Spain pass the ball around in circles. An idiot journalist started deriding Englands pass completion rate as statistics show the French players passed the ball “successfully” twice as many times.

This is because English players have not yet picked up the habit of spending long periods of the game passing the ball backwards and sideways in their own half. Keeper to full back to centre back to keeper to full back ad nauseum is not a game that is admired in the English leagues. It does create nice pie charts for newspapers to publish.

On Friday England need to get the points. Pass completion statistics will not mean a thing if the scoreboard does reflect a positive goal tally. Sweden are no mugs and a single error can leave the whole campaign floundering. The group is tight and uncertain.

It is international sport at the highest level and some of the players are just teenagers. The pressure to perform, to succeed is almost absurd as historical national rivalries are transmuted into sport. But it remains a game – just.

Most England fans probably were wishing for a Dutch victory and most Engalnd fans would crave a final with Germany. We all know why.

But for now the horizons are limited. Three points against Sweden.

Come On England – we’re winning the Euros in 2012.