"We know we’re not the favourites, but you can also win without starting out as favourites,” said Emanuele Giaccherini at the beginning of this tournament.

Football these days is full of greedy young men and grasping young women, players and their WAGs, a set of people who inhabit a world of their own, utterly separate from the world of their fans.

The US Secret Service sex scandal has spawned X-rated jokes, inspired a spicy song set to a local Caribbean beat, and made an unlikely celebrity of a 42-year-old taxi driver who lives with his mother and now seems to be in hiding.

The Iraqi journalist who gained worldwide fame for throwing his shoes at George Bush said today he had wanted to restore the pride of his devastated country.