And now back to the real business
So how was it for you? Put another way, were the ballyhooed Euro 2000 play-offs worth missing a week of Premiership action for? Probably not but they made for a novel enough distraction. And there was that amazing 45-yard winning goal for Slovenia in their first leg against Ukraine.
We're back to club fare this week and the full gamut of English, Italian, Spanish and Champions' League games.
Everton v Chelsea is the choice for tomorrow's live game although Sunderland v Liverpool would have appealed more to most neutrals.
There are two massive games from Italy back-to-back on Sunday night. The Rome derby, Roma v Lazio is followed by Juventus v Milan.
And with the second phase of the Champions' League starting on Tuesday and Wednesday there are corkers each night. Fiorentina, still struggling in Serie A, take on Manchester United in Florence on Tuesday. Then, on Wednesday, it's Marseille against Lazio.
Here's one that just won't go away. Last week I wrongly credited CABLE TV with showing the 'missing' Manchester United matches on the show 'Manchester United Party'. Before the season began CABLE announced that they would show every United Premiership match in its entirety. When United appeared neither in the live or delayed slots on two occasions recently it appeared the deal was not being observed.
However CABLE have set the record straight. If a United match is not shown live or in the delayed slot then they guarantee it will be shown at 10pm on the Monday.
In a new twist this week, CABLE received more than 100 calls complaining that United had not featured live on two successive occasions (against Leicester and Villa)
