Lilian Thuram clattered into Pablo Ibanez from behind in the box and treads on his ankle. Referee Roberto Rosetti shows no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Fabien Barthez goes the right way and gets close to the ball but the spot-kick from DAVID VILLA is rifled hard and low into the bottom corner, clipping the post as it goes on. Close to the perfect penalty. French keeper, Barthez, dived the right way, but Villa’s penalty was a ferocious shot that no keeper could have saved.

The French are flattering to deceive, and should Spain not be victorious, it will certainly be an absolute travesty. So far in this torrnament, the Spanish are playing fantastic football. It’s a joy to watch.

As I write this the French have equalised through Frank Ribery. A dubious goal that hinted of offside. 1-1 now at half time. It really promises to be a cracking 2nd half. Enjoy it if you are watching.

For someone who has a vested interest in this game, it’s agony to watch. France are slowly coming back into the contest, but my prediction remains true, that Spain will prevail. Still 1-1.

Spain are the more likely to score the next goal according to many websites and T.V. They say, 46% back the Spaniards with 32% opting for France. 22% are already preparing for the long haul and penalties. I must admit it has peno’s written all over it. It’s an electric game. Really fantastic.

Carles Puyol is booked for running across Thierry Henry as the pair chase a through ball. The Frenchman goes down holding his face. Yes it was a deserved freekick and OH MY GOD France have scored and taken the lead with 8 mins to go. Zinedine Zidane’s free-kick is flicked on to the back post where PATRICK VIERRA heads the ball home. There was a deflection and Casillas was wrong footed. Holy Moly what a disaster for the Spanish.

Zidane makes it 3-1 on a counter attack. The French are some lucky team. They will play the Brazilians in the quarters. Spain lived up to their historical name, "the chokers". The best team certainly lost today.

Ronaldo, who has not produced much at all this world cup, breaks Gerd Muller’s World Cup finals goalscoring record to give the defending champions the lead. Kaka put Ronaldo in and the Real Madrid man mugged Richard Kingston with a trademark stepover and slotted the ball home. It was Ronaldo’s 15th goal in World Cup finals. Adriano, doubled Brazil’s lead, tapping in a cross from Cafu after a sweeping end-to-end move – but it was clearly offside. Immediately before, Sulley Muntari almost tip-toed his way through the flaky Brazil defence at the other end.

Brazil didn’t deserve to go in 2-0 up because they had not had that much of the play. You could say that Ghana deserved an equaliser before Adriano’s goal, which looks like it was definitely offside, but their organisation at the back was lacking many things.

Still Ghana failed to learn. Ze Roberto found Adriano in acres of space only for the striker to mess it up, trying to round Kingston but falling to the floor and being booked for a dive. Ze Roberto ran through to wrap it up while Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan was sent off. 3-0 to the samba boys.

The scoreline was perhaps a touch harsh on Ghana, who recovered from a horror start to match their more illustrious opponents. Brazil will now meet Spain or France in the last eight on Saturday in Frankfurt

The main reason for this match between Argentina and Holland, is to see who wins and plays Mexico next, or be runner-up and play Portugal. It’s been a dire 1st half. Not a good advertisement for the beautiful game. The other game sees Serbia-Montenegro take on Ivory Coast for Pride. By all accounts it’s not a bad game, with S+M leading 2-1 at half-time. Sadly the third games of the first round are either steeped in permutations and ifs and buts, or non-events.

Tomorrow morning will be one of those ‘what if’ matches, when The U.S.A. take on Ghana. I wont bore you all with the ins and outs because they will not matter if the U.S. don’t win.

I’ve had a lot of good feedback from you lot about my live blog yesterday on England/Sweden. So much so I’ve decided to try my hand at it again tomorrow. So at 10am EST, I’ll live blog Ghana Vs U.S.A. So come along and join in.

Well would you Adam and Eve it… Spain dominated Tunisia in the first 5 mins with 3 close attempts by Luis Garcia, David Villa and Fernando Torres, then a midfield mistake, followed by a defensive error by Puylol, let Ziad Jaziri turn 5 Spanish players inside out. He picked out Joahar Mnari, who’s initial shot was well saved by Iker Casillas, but the rebound was slotted home by him to give Tunisa a shocking, to say the least, a 1-0 lead.

Since then it is 95% Spain pressure. It really shouldn’t be long before the Spanish score. Xavi’s free-kick from the right is headed over by defender Sergio Ramos and David Villa’s free-kick from 25 yards is punched away by Ali Boumnijel. It’s total domination.

On a rare attack by Tunisia, that man Puyol again commits a foul outside the area, But Anis Ayari’s effort from the resulting free kick is well stopped by Casillas. Spain counter attack and Xavi’s freekick is narrowly headded wide by Luis Garcia in the 35th minute. Brilliant stuff totally. It has to be said Tunisia are knocking the ball around nicely. Very confident team now. Spain seem to be at 6′s and 7′s by trying to hard possibly and starting to panic.

It’s half time and amazingly it’s still 1-0 to Tunisia. Statistics don’t lie, but can be manipulated. Spain officially 2 shots on target!!!! but 70% of attacking possesion. The majority of their chances have gone wde, But no more than 3 ft each. So in theory Spain are the most attacking team. If it was a boxing match, it would have been stopped. Thats not to take anything away from the Tunisians, they are holding on well, with the odd attack. It’s poiaring rain in Stuttgart, but it’s the same for both teams, so no excuses at all.

Spain striker Raul and midfielder Cesc Fabregas come on in the start of the 2nd half for Luis Garcia and Senna. Spain come out off the blocks quick again and Xavi’s free kick is knocked behind for their 9th corner of the evening. But again Tunisia clear their lines but cannot get hold of the ball at all. Tunisia are playing 9 men behind the ball, so every clearance is going back to the Spanish.

Another free kick for Spain in the 55th min is wasted by Mariano Pernia who lofted it over the bar. Surprisingly Joaquin comes on for Villa, and that is Spains lats sub, with 35mins left. So any injuries to a Spainard, could leave them with 10 men. Tunisia counter that move by Spains manager Luis Aragones, by making a double substitution, Kaies Ghodhbane comes on for Riadh Bouazizi, while Anis Ayari is off for Alaeddine Yahia.

71st min and Real Madrid’s Raul has equalised. Joaquins expertese on the right wing helped him beat his marker, then delivered a low cross, Torres and had a shot saved and Raul buried it, 1-1. Fabregas immeditely had a powerful shot saved. It’s still all Spain. They should go on and win it.

4 mins later and Fernando Torres puts Spain in front. Fabregases sublime pass is taken up by Torres who beats his marker and gives Boumnijel no chance. What an excellent pass and running off the ball by Torres. 2-1 to Spain. There still could be more. Tunisia look tired.

In the 90th min. Spain are awarded a penalty when Torres is pulled down by keeper Ali Boumnijel. Fernando Torres picks himself up, and is lucky to bury the penalty under the keepers body to score. It’s now 3-1 Spain.

Final whistle is blown and this was an impressive win by Spain by a dogged Tunisian side. Kudos to them, they defended resolutely, and came up empty handed. Nice come back, and that’s important in football. When all is against you and you are not gelling, to come back and win, and win well, is a big statement to the rest of the world.

U.S.A.’s moment of truth tomorrow. Hope you will all be tuned in, and give me a shout on your thoughts and questions..

Sergei Rebrov adds Ukraines 2nd goal in the 36th minute, following  Andriy Rusols opener in the 4th minute. Saudi Arabia have flattered a couple of times but it is definately a one-way game. Ukraine have turned a disaastrous performane against Spain around into a Balkan masterclass. Andrei Shevkenko, now with Chelsea added a third in the opening minutes of the 2nd half. A beautifully taken headed goal, from a free kick, whipped in by Maxim Kalinichenko. It’s no more than Ukraine deserve. But this performance begs the question,  is it a vastly improved team, or are Spain just head and shoulders above every one. Spain thouroughly destroyed Ukraine, a few days ago. We will see later as Spain take on Tunisia.

The Saudis made two substitutes, Khathran and Mouath, and they had a positive effect and the change of shape was momentarily foxing the Ukrainians, resulting in a corner that was hurriedly cleared. Sergiy Rebrov was replaced by Ruslan Rotan. Andriy Shevchenko bursted into the area, chested the ball down and was stopped in his tracks, should have been a penalty but English referee, Graham Poll, said no. One footnote, Graham Poll is regarded the number 1 referee in England, and his performance today was outstanding. He should be commended for that.

In the 84th minute, the coup de gras was administered, by a lovely break down the inside left by Shevkenko who laid on a sweet pass for Kalinichenko to bury their 4th goal, into the roof of the net. Mighty performance from the Ukranians. Almost immediately Shevchenko was replaced by Milevskiy, purely to get his own personal ovation by a partizan Ukrainian crowd.

Overall Ukraine, today, showed the world, how they were the 1st country qualified from Europe. All things being equal though, Saudi Arabia were not really a factor, apart from sopradic attacks, a small periods of possesion.

Despite all their off-field problems, Togo began brightly and had good chances to open the scoring. Adebayor’s headed flick fell to Kader whose neat turn failed to receive the finish it deserved and ended up in the hands of Pascal Zuberbuehler. Kader and strike partner Adebayor continued to cause the Swiss back line problems and Adebayor felt he should have had a penalty when he appeared to be held back when heading towards goal.

But for all the Africans’ endeavour in attack, their defensive frailties were soon exposed when poor marking led to Switzerland’s opener. Barnetta found himself with acres of space down the Switzerland right and he volleyed Ludovic Magnan’s cross into the box for Frei to turn home from five yards.

As Togo searched for a way back into the match, they were denied what looked to be a certain penalty by referee Carlos Amarilla. He waved away appeals after Adebayor was scythed down by Patrick Muller and Togo would have felt hard done by going into the break a goal down.

The Swiss started the second half with more zest and Barnetta had a half volley acrobatically tipped over by Zuberbuehler. Hakin Yakin should have put the Swiss in a commanding position on 64 minutes, but his close-range shot when clean through was well palmed away by Togo goalkeeper, Kossi Agassi. Then to add to Togo’s misery, Barnetta completed Switzerland’s victory with a sweet strike from just inside the penalty area to send to them top of Group G.

They now become favorites to qualify for the second round, but their next game, against Korea will be no cakewalk.

France laid siege to the South Korean goal in the opening 10 minutes and Lee Woon-Jae did well to come out and narrow the angle to prevent Sylvain Wiltord from scoring. Then the French scored their first goal since the final in 1998 when, after 10 mins, Thierry Henry got the French off to a great start, in Leipzig today. The Koreans, who wowed the world 4 years ago in their own homeland, suddenly realized they had to start playing again. They fought with skill and honor, but the French still looked to be the better team. Halfway through the first half, there was controversy.

France should have had a second goal when Vieira’s header clearly crossed the line, despite Lee Woon-Jae’s desperate efforts to keep the ball out. Extensive T.V. replays showed it to be the fact, and the French were hard done by.

Wave after wave of Korean attacks never really got to the final shot, while all the time Frances efforts were being spurned by a collection of bad misses, good defending and excellent goalkeeping.

Spurred on by a fanatical support inside the stadium, the Koreans stepped up a gear in the second half. Then with 10 minutes to go Park Ji-sung punished some sloppy French defending, and lobbed French Keeper Fabian Barthez to squeeze home the deserved equalizer. Their support was magnificent, and the atmosphere was electric inside the stadium.

Thierry Henry doesn’t disappear in big games, but he’s lacking the quality of service he gets at Arsenal. It will be tough for France to get through without the influential Zidane, who received his second yellow card of the tournament, through an innocuous tackle, but Togo are the whipping dogs of the group and you’d expect them to get through.

Australia end the half on the attack with Marco Bresciano firing a shot over. There have been few clear-cut opportunities but it is hard to imagine we are not going to see some after the break. At this stage neither side deserves to be ahead. Australia are in this game, no doubt about that. Out of the players coming off the pitch it’s the Brazilians that are looking more miserable. Not the match we had anticipated at all. So with the second half about to start, we have a goalless stalemate.

3 mins into second half, and Adriano accepts a pass from Ronaldo just outside the area and shoots low and true into the bottom right hand corner of the net. Now will we see a more entertaining match from the flamboyant Brazilians, we all know. Ronaldhino, the worlds number 1 player, is turning on the style now. Footwork trickery is bamboozeling the Aussies

Ze Roberto makes a last ditch tackle in the Area on Sterjovski. The ball broke loose to Cahill who shot over. Harry Kewell comes on for Cahill, and makes an immediate impact. Sadly for Australian fans, the Wizard of Oz blazes high and wide after Dida the Brazilian goalie drops the ball and left the net open at Kewells mercy. It’s a contender for not just the worst miss of this tournament, but the worst miss in World Cup history. Much, Much better match now. Australia are rampant at the moment. Who’s the Samba stars??

Again Harry Kewell breaks the offside trap, goes for a lob of Dida from 30 yards which goes narrowly over. Kewell is involved everywhere. Another nippy little player, John Aloisi, comes in for Craig Moore. 70 mins gone and I reckon there is more goals in this contest. Robinho and Gilberto Silva come on for Ronaldo and Emerson.

Robinho, Adriano and cafu all are involved in a lovely breakaway, only for Robinho to go narrowly wide. The Aussies are defending very well. Still 12 mins plus injury time to go. Dida keeps Brazils lead in tact with a fantastic save from a spectacular Bresciano volley. Following a Roberto Carlos, thunderous free kick, which was deflected for a corner, Kaka rattled the crossbar with a mighty header. Schwartzer, in the Aussie goal, was called on again and made a superb one handed save from Robinho.

A free kick for Australia in a dangerous spot just outside the area, goes narrowly wide, with both Viduka and Kewell failing to get a telling touch. Viduka goes through again, chips the advancing Dida, but his lob lands on the roof of the net. Cracking second half.

89th min and a rasping shot by Robinho rebounds off the post, right into the path of Fred who has the simplest of tap ins to double the Brazilians score. Australia scarsely deserve to lose this game. In injury time Brazil should have added a third. Robinho set up Fred, who dummied, but Kaka shot wide. Final whistle is blown and Brazil advance to the second round. Australia should be proud of an excellent, spirited performance. A draw against Croatia next, should also see the qualify.. If you didn’t see the second half, you missed an entertaining 45mins.

Croatia were awarded a penalty after 20 minutes when Prso was fouled in the area by Tsuneyasu Miyamoto. But goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi dived to his left to brilliantly to save Darijo Srna’s spot-kick and kept the score level. It was the turning point in a game dominated by the Croatians. Japan, not without their own chances were held to counter-attacking football. Nakata was superb in the midfield for the Japanese and goalkeeper  Kawaguchi, while at times erratic certainly earned his corn with a string of excellent saves. Japans golden chance came at the end of 90mins when Atsushi Yanagisawa wasted a golden opportunity to snap the deadlock, and give the Japanese a shock win. Its still all to play for in that group. It also gives a bigger impetious to Australias game against Brazil.