[Devongone]

Teams we have beaten recently are making it through to the Quarter Finals - like the Swiss and the Czechs - and Croatia should really have gone 4-3 up against Spain, so we ought to be bristling with confidence. Player for player France were clearly the best team in the tournament, but you have to play for more than 20-25 minutes to win most games, so they're out. The over-rated Dutch flopped. Belgium's best player doesn't look anywhere near fit. Italy looked nowhere near so confident when properly challenged. Spain's defence looks amazingly vulnerable to any ball crossed in and they appear to be missing the aggression of Sergio Ramos.

If we could play anything like as good as we look on paper we could get past the Germans and even win the thing. But I haven't even got the courage to find out what team Southgate is picking, the formation, or the way he intends to approach the game. I fear he'll be happy to scrape through. Me? I'd make us all happy by trying to score. Pitchfork in goal, back three - Walker, Maguire, Stones - wing backs - Saka on the left and James on the right - three middle men - Bellingham, Mount and Grealish, and up front - Kane and Rashford. Any failure to score in the first 60 minutes would see Sancho and Sterling appear sharpish. FFS we've got a player as good as Dele Alli didn't even come into consideration thanks to Mourinho.

I'm still forecasting a draw with us to crawl through on pennos - my dream would be Thomas Muller slips in his run-up and shanks the ball into the corner flag. That's as near as I get to patriotism or xenophobia.