He did it again!

Just as he did two years ago in the World Cup, Bastian Schweinsteiger had a hand in all of Germany's 3 goals against Portugal.

Their 3-2 victory last night knocked out one of the pre-tournament favourites who failed to perform to the lofty standards we have come to expect of them. Scweinsteiger's Man-of-the-Match performance atoned for his immature sending off against Croatia and it's hard to wonder why he wasn't a starter for German at the beginning of the tournament. He certainly seems a better all round player than Clemens Fritz, the player who he came in for. Perhaps Joachim Löw went for a more attacking approach to the game and it paid off handsomely. Germany's first goal was a thing of beauty, interchanging passes and weaving a delicate pattern through the left flank before Schweinsteiger finished Lukas Podolski's cross. Pure brilliance. Portugal stunned. The two freekicks from which Germany scored showed an unbelievable lack of man marking by the Portuguese, although Michael Ballack's goal should have been ruled out for a blatant push on Paulo Ferreira. However, the ref missed it and the goal stood. When questioned in a BBC post match interview, Ballack even had the cheek to answer that in a game there are always pushes and that it was difficult to say. Come on you used both your hands to conveniently usher Ferreira's body away from the ball! Then again Germany did deserve their win and will now be confident of beating the winners of the Croatia vs Turkey semifinal.

Portugal simply did not deliver. Luiz Felipe Scolari will not have been pleased by the way his team lost their sense of direction. They may have scored two goals but those were only scant consolation in a game where they were second best. Even Scolari admitted that he had failed. It doesn't augur well for Chelsea fans, a manager admitting he has failed the team with his selection. Although his truthfulness may deserve some applause, it's not heartening to know that a manager cannot find a single reason to justify his selection. Their style of play was easy on the eye but lacked an end product that really mattered. Nuno Gomes' goal came about only because Jens Lehmann couldn't hold onto Cristiano Ronaldo's shot from a tight angle. Luck. He should have squared the ball. And to think he had matured after watching his assist against the Czechs. Perhaps not.

Ronaldo had a poor night by his standards and reinforces many people's beliefs that he cannot consistently perform on he big stage. He may have played well in the Champions League final but that was only one standout occasion. I know I've said you can't keep a player as good as him down but the question is how long will it be before he delivers a superlative individual performance in a game of paramount importance? In other words, he wasn't good enough last night when it really mattered. Nani outshone him when he was sent on, combining the right amount of trickery and passing and created their second goal for Helder Postiga. For all the talk of Ronaldo being completely focused on Portugal at Euro 2008, you can't help but wonder whether his mind was really on his football 100%. If you read this (it's a good read, you get his answer in two days right now!) you may start to agree with me. All this talk of him announcing his intentions in two days is utter rubbish. He wants to leave the greatest club in the world (figuratively and subjectively) for Real Madrid. Actually I'm not going to recommend you read the interview, I insist that you do. He speaks of his dream which will be announced soon. If his dream was to stay at Man Utd he would've announced it earlier. He wants to go to Spain, end story. Man Utd should now focus on getting as much money as possible and a couple of decent players in exchange. I'd say £60m and Wesley Sneijder at the very least. Shame Madrid don't have a decent out and out striker. I doubt Ruud van Nistelrooy would want to go back to Man Utd either. Sneijder's stock has risen during Euro 08 and would fit in perfectly on the right of Man Utd's midfield. Get working on it Sir Alex!