In tonight’s European Championship match at Lviv between Germany and Portugal, in the so-called ‘group of death’, the word ‘Chelsea’ was much on our French commentator’s lips. This was because, despite having such talented players as Ronaldo and Nani in his side, the trainer, Paulo Bento, had clearly opted to play defensively for a draw at worst, leaving Ronaldo and Nani to act as opportunistic (and frustrated) stilettos (as Didier Drogba had done). What is more, Bento’s tactics seemed to be working. Indeed, so frustrated was the German trainer, Joachim Löw, that by the 70th minute he was about to substitute his centre-forward, Mario Gomez, hoping that his replacement, Miroslav Klose, would find a way through. And then, in the 72nd minute, Gomez got onto the end of a cross and headed the ball in, completely wrong-footing Rui Patricio. Gomez was duly substituted, in the 80th minute, and Germany held on to their lead to win 1-0. Not reading Portuguese, I cannot know what the Portuguese sports pundits made of it all, but the French commentators were very critical of Bento’s ‘waste’ of his team’s talent. And yet nobody would have criticised Bento for a boring match if his tactics had paid off – as was so nearly the case.