Brazil have achieved their customary place in the final, Holland were unlucky not to make it and Croatia outdid all expectations, while even for England, every man did his duty -- bar one.

But forget for a moment the all-star team being compiled. Consider the unofficial `World Cup flops' -- players and teams who failed to live up to their billing. Individuals who failed to emerge with much credit were Holland's 12-million man Jaap Stam, presumably fairly high up the list of Fifa president Sepp Blatter's `textile testers' -- shirt-pullers in plain English. Bulgaria's 1994 joint top scorer Hristo Stoichkov this time fired blanks and Colombia's Faustino Asprilla lasted 45 minutes before being sent home for bickering. Even Brazil weren't immune, with Roberto Carlos moaning his freekicks were ineffective because the ball was toolight!

Collectively, there were three major disappointments.

Given their previous records, Germany and Italy wound up in the street of shame, performing adequately in the first phase only to produce a damp squib afterwards.

Italy did what they've done so often before -- strangling the life out of the match as they crept past Norway by the only goal, before a total lack of attacking ambition sank them against France.

The Germans, who likewise reached the last eight, flattered in likewise reaching the last eight only to deceive desperately against the fired-up Croatians. That game saw Berti Vogts's failure to regenerate the squad cruelly exposed.

The subtext of the German problem was at the individual level as the old guard -- Kopke, Moller to name but two -- fell below normal Teutonic standards, while the new, such as Jens Jeremies didn't quite measure up either.

Add to that the customary bickering, a German specialty, and a fourth title was never a serious possibility with only Klinsmann andBierhoff really looking the part.

But at least German and Italian fans have had plenty to celebrate in the past not like Spain, who crashed at the first hurdle.

Javier Clemente's side had waltzed through the qualifiers and for 73 minutes against Nigeria in their opening group match, things were motoring along fine at 2-1.

Enter veteran goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta, playing in his fourth World Cup, to spoon a Garba Lawal cross into his own net.

Lawal claimed the goal -- the opprobrium was heaped on `Zubi', who retired suitably castigated two weeks later after a goalless draw with Paraguay dumped out Europe's perennial under-achievers.

If only the World Cup final had been played at Lens on June 4, Spain, who turned on a brilliant exhibition showing that night to crush Bulgaria 6-1, might have carried off the trophy.

But it wasn't and they didn't.