Size, naturally, depends on your perspective.

FOR the majority of those involved, the third round of the FA Cup is still the date in the football calendar most synonymous with unpredictability and the gloriously enticing idea that anything can happen.

There’s a story around Arsenal that, when one of the old foreign players was first told of the demanding Christmas fixture list, he genuinely thought it was a wind-up.

When you bring it all down to the bare facts, the situation is, quite simply, historically bad.

In the end, mercifully, this wasn’t Giovanni Trapattoni’s version of Liechtenstein 1995. More ominously, though, it might well have been his San Marino 2007.

It’s 2am in Kiev and not a single member of the Spanish squad has yet left the dressing room.

Pep Guardiola’s philosophy has reached its apotheosis

So, the party’s finally over.

Euro 2012 has already been unique.

It’s only eight days on from Ireland’s first trip to Poznan but, around the charming city yesterday, it felt like light years.