KING OF GERMANY IS MICHAEL BALLACK!!

Gabriele Marcotti's daily diary: let's talk Ballacks - the guy is a superstar

3. No doubt back in England you're being inundated by wise and original statements like "You can never count the Germans out" and so on. After such an exhausting and thrilling match, I'm still letting it all sink in. But I do want to celebrate a guy who has been in the Premier League for two years and still gets treated more like a run-of-the-mill Anton Auslander than the superstar that he is.

Michael Ballack had a monster second half of the Premiership season and, against Portugal, was instrumental in Bastian Schweinsteiger's goal, before adding another of his own. (Yes, there was a cheeky shove on Paulo Ferreira, but you have to wonder why Ferreira was on Ballack in the first place). Granted, you would expect someone making £6.5m a year to carry his team through time. But, the fact is, many highly-paid stars either go missing or simply come up short when it matters. Not Ballack. Not last night.

2. You've probably heard by now that Khalid Boulahrouz, the Holland defender, lost his baby daughter who was born pre-maturely. He's back in the squad and every indication is that he will start against Russia tonight. Whatever the case may be, my thoughts go to the Boulahrouz family. Football seems rather irrelevant at times like these. But perhaps it can help him to somehow come to terms with his pain.

1. So David Taylor, Uefa's General Secretary, has announced that the 2016 Euros may be comprised of 24 teams (up from the current 16). The proposal will be examined between now and Christmas. It's actually not a bad idea. Consider the sides who finished third in their respective qualifying groups: Serbia, Scotland, Norway, Republic of Ireland, England, Northern Ireland and Bulgaria. Plus the next best side in qualifying, say, Denmark or Ukraine. Would they drastically lower the level of the competition? Probably not. And, even then, the benefits of seeing more and diverse stars would greatly enhance the interest in the Euros. Plus, of course, the sponsors would be happy too. More games, more TV revenue, a virtual guarantee that the biggest TV markets (read: United Kingdom) will be involved... what's not to like?