Last night’s football between Australia and Italy was a crushing way to go out — a penalty against Australia in the last seven seconds of the game. A soft penalty at that. Despite what the article says, Australia had most of the possession, but couldn’t get past the watertight Italian defence. Really, though, I can’t see Italy winning the big prize (nor would Australia have, had they won this).
Italy now go on to play Ukraine, after an apparently dire match concluding with Switzerland failing to score a single penalty. Have a glance through The Guardian’s minute-by-minute report, if only to read the comments (straying into the plot of the concurrent Miss Marple) and the author begging someone, anyone, to score. Compare and constrast with the dull minute-by-minutes posted by the New York Times: Switzerland-Ukraine and Italy-Australia.