Heritage Showdown.

We had our last game of EURO2012, the quarter-final match between Spain and France. The blog title alludes to the fact that Steve has some French blood in his and I have some Spanish blood in me (if you go back far enough). There were a lot of open seats at the stadium for this game, probably due to the fact that Donetsk is so far east (aka, away from the rest of Europe), which meant Billy got his own seat!

It was a good game, with Spain holding more possession than France. It was amazing to see so many famous faces up close, and I was stunned by the speed of play. Yeah, we all know that Spain is big on the possession/passing style, but on TV it looks slow and composed. In reality it is very, very fast-paced. The amount of control that these players have that you don't really experience or understand from watching the matches on tv is astonishing.

This is where we were!!!!

The picture makes it look like we were right behind the goal, but actually we were to the side of it. If you walked straight back from the corner of the six-yard box, you would walk straight to us.

Overall, very good game; I am very happy that Spain is moving on even though Puyol is not playing :( the only thing I could think about during the second half, when we were on Spain's defensive half, was "If Puyol was here, he would be right there!!! I could run out and hug him if I wanted to!!!"