The Euro 2012 quarter-finals finally burst into life after the desperately disappointing opening match on Thursday as Germany produced a scarily dominant display to sweep past a limited Greece side and set up a mouth-watering semi-final clash with England. Or, more likely, Italy. Look, I'm just a realist, all right? The Germans - with a somewhat experimental line-up - having dropped Thomas Müller, Lukas Podolski and Mario Gómez in favour of André Schürrle, Miroslav Klose and Marco Reus - wasted a host of early chances before their captain Philipp Lahm fired them ahead in spectacular fashion from the edge of the box. With Mesut Özil in particular in outstanding form in midfield, the Germans should have been half-a-dozen up by half-time against a Greek team who seemed not to have a Plan B to fall back on after Plan A (don't let them score) failed. 
At half-time the ITV analyst and former England international Gareth Southgate sounded so depressed by the Greeks' lack of anything approaching ambition, that yer actual Keith Telly Topping was genuinely worried the poor chap might do himself harm in the second half. No, hang on, what's the opposite of worried...? Anyway, against all odds (and, seemingly, All Laws Of God and Man) Greece threatened a scare when early in the second half Celtic plank Georgios Samaras who'd looked more likely to miss a barn door at two feet than do anything remotely worthwhile somehow levelled after a quick Dimitris Salpingidis counter-attack. If nothing else, that bit of deficit reduction had the impact of wiping an annoyingly smug smirk, briefly, off Angela Merkel's mush. Which was nice. But, sadly, that didn't last long and Sami Khedira and Miroslav Klose soon responded with quality strikes (particularly the former). Marco Reus thumped home a fourth for the Germans before Salpingidis stroked home a late consolation penalty. Germany will now take on England or Italy in the last four in Warsaw next Thursday. And, probably, win. Like I say, I'm a realist.
At half-time the ITV analyst and former England international Gareth Southgate sounded so depressed by the Greeks' lack of anything approaching ambition, that yer actual Keith Telly Topping was genuinely worried the poor chap might do himself harm in the second half. No, hang on, what's the opposite of worried...? Anyway, against all odds (and, seemingly, All Laws Of God and Man) Greece threatened a scare when early in the second half Celtic plank Georgios Samaras who'd looked more likely to miss a barn door at two feet than do anything remotely worthwhile somehow levelled after a quick Dimitris Salpingidis counter-attack. If nothing else, that bit of deficit reduction had the impact of wiping an annoyingly smug smirk, briefly, off Angela Merkel's mush. Which was nice. But, sadly, that didn't last long and Sami Khedira and Miroslav Klose soon responded with quality strikes (particularly the former). Marco Reus thumped home a fourth for the Germans before Salpingidis stroked home a late consolation penalty. Germany will now take on England or Italy in the last four in Warsaw next Thursday. And, probably, win. Like I say, I'm a realist.
