Internationals / Mike Norman / 24 June 2009 / Leave a comment

A case of sod's law for Mike Norman doesn't seem to have dampened his mood ahead of England's semi-final with Sweden on Friday, but at least one nation has riled him enough to hope that UEFA take action.

The group stages of the U21 European Championship came to a conclusion last night courtesy of some fantastic action, some obscene brutality, and - just like Wimbledon putting a trillion pound roof over centre court only for the weather to be hotter than the Sahara Desert - an unwanted case of sod's law!

The latter came when I was just about to invest my own version of a trillion pounds on the [1.9] available about Sweden's Marcus Berg being the tournament's top goalscorer, only for the future wife to switch channels to watch the last 10 minutes of Eastenders. Not one to have a wager unless I can view the action, I decided to delay placing my bet until the football was back on my TV screen - a 52in HD Digital LCD one if you needed reminding.

The rest they say is history. Berg had scored a brace of goals quicker than Stacey Slater falling on her back when there's a Branning around, and the [1.9] had suddenly shrunk to a miserly [1.1] or thereabouts. Sod's law indeed!

Those two Berg goals, along with Ola Toivonen's second goal of the tournament, helped Sweden to a 3-1 victory over the ridiculously physical Serbian team. In fact, to be quite frank, if I never see Serbia again at this level of football it will be too soon. They received a total of eight yellow and two red cards last night, and in all honesty, it should have been more. Their discipline, especially when they knew their chance of qualifying had gone, was deplorable and I sincerely hope UEFA take action against them.

Sweden have been a pleasure to watch and will be serious rivals for England when the two teams meet in the semi-final, but it was Italy who eventually topped Group A thanks to a 2-1 victory over Belarus.

I can't help feel that Italy's match-winner last night, Robert Acquafresca, should have been an Englishman born in the washroom of Coronation Street's rarely seen supermarket. The Italian now has three goals to his name in the tournament, and is available to back at [4.6] in the Top Goalscorer market. Berg (five goals) remains the hot favourite at [1.16].

The semi-final line-ups have now been decided. England will play Sweden in Gothenburg on Friday (5pm kick-off), whilst Italy will face Germany a few hours later in Helsingborg.

Stuart Pearce's men remain the favourites to lift the trophy and are available to back at [2.9], just ahead of Italy ([3.05]), Sweden ([5.1]) and Germany ([5.5]). To reach the final, both England and Italy can be backed at [1.5], whilst the other two teams are both on the [2.2] mark.

The news coming from the England camp remains very upbeat. Winger Adam Johnson is the latest player to reiterate the togetherness in the squad and that he, and the other 22 members, fear absolutely no-one as the tournament reaches a conclusion. Pearce has instilled a belief in his players that they can beat anyone, and that squad numbers 12-23 are just as important as 1-11. His work ethic is extraordinary, and with no injury worries or suspensions ahead of Friday's semi-final, England are in an extremely favourable position.

I will keep blogging until the tournament ends, but don't forget that our experts James Eastham and Tobias Gourlay will be previewing the semi-finals in more depth later in the week.