england just doesn't have the depth of talent to compete with the big boys right now. italy showed that pretty clearly, but it wasn't a surprise, as if you think about it objectively, england hasn't actually been good in any match so far. the media were really overhyping ambiguous performances against pretty poor competition. i mean, a 1-1 draw with a pretty awful france squad (in which france had the better of things), a 3-2 win over a much-worse-than-normal swedish side that can't defend (and yet still had the better of things for most of the match), and a 1-0 "victory" courtesy of bad officiating over that football powerhouse, the ukraine? this is not the stuff legends are made of.

but hey...my team (sweden) also had structural problems, and couldn't even get that far, so it's all relative.

predictions:

i think italy plays germany tight for a while, but in the end the germans have too much firepower and win 2-0.
spain and portugal go scoreless and spain wins in extra time or PKs.
germany finally overcomes their kryptonite i the final, 2-1