The one thing that joins these teams together is the pace with which they attack. That is not just the speed of the players over the ground but the speed of thought and delivery of the players as they go forwards. Spain have scored a number of goals with blistering pace, and Holland have obviously scored those remarkable counter-attacking goals that have lit up the tournament and put both France and Italy in grave danger of not qualifying.

The notable difference comes in the wide areas. Watching the Austrians stumble out of the tournament it was obvious that whenever they got into a wide position the players would take another touch or two before delivering the ball. This gave the defenders time to get into position and close off the spaces into which the forwards would be moving. Spain and Holland in particular don’t waste any time on the flanks, more often than not the ball comes in first time and usually at pace. This gives players like Torres, Villa, Schneider and Van Persie the opportunity to dart into spaces behind or in front of defenders and put the goal under pressure.

The same can be said of the Portuguese though their delivery from the flanks is often slowed by the wide players trying to beat the full backs. This has another advantage because it changes the angles of the delivery and draws the centre-backs across again opening gaps for players coming through from midfield or even deeper.

In comparison to this you find the pre-tournament favorites Germany who have barely put any good balls into the box, despite the aerial prowess of their forwards – particularly Klose. Nor have they succeeded in getting behind the defenders, aside from the first match against Poland and as such look in danger of being dumped out of the tournament soon.

The one team who could possibly put the cat amongst the pigeons must be the Italians though. If they can sort their defense out and find the way to steal the odd goal on the way through then they will be a threat. According to Blue Square the Italians are extremely unlikely to make an impact on the tournament, but they can never be discounted and so if you’re into sports betting they might just be worth a shot. For the entertainment level of the football though, I hope that they don’t pull their act together, and leave the swashbuckling likes of Holland and Spain to progress as far as possible.