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Who knows how liberals come up with wonderful ideas like Multiculturalism and Identity Politics I recently read about how early-arriving Olympic contestants in Brazil are complaining about the condition of the waters they train by and in—oil slicks, the odd body part, mosquitoes, “superbugs” and such—picky, picky, picky. It struck me how opposed to the spirit of multiculturalism such provincial and benighted attitudes are—how xenophobic, how paternalistic, how…white. Which led me to think about Kanye West’s recent request that Rolling Stone, The New York Times, and other “white” publications stop commenting on black music. Right on Kanye!

The winner of Thursday’s meeting between the world champions and the hosts will enter the final as favourites. The two highest rated sides at the tournament – France on 7.17 and Germany on 7.15 – will be treating this game as if it were the final itself. Joachim Löw’s side are hoping to emulate France’s achievement of holding both the World Cup and European Championship trophy at the same time. France have not been truly tested yet but neither have they breezed through a highly favourable draw. While their first-half annihilation of Iceland in the quarter-finals promised much, it was...

Proven pedigree meets the darkest of dark horses on Wednesday when Portugal take on Wales with a place in Sunday's UEFA EURO 2016 final at stake.

Briefly, Germany toyed with our minds. For a few moments, they seemed to forget it was not supposed to be in their football DNA to miss from a penalty shootout even when the heat of the battle was dangerously close to intolerable. Yet how typical that, ultimately, it was their players in the victory scrum, chasing one another in euphoria and celebrating another victory from 12 yards. No other side does it better even if, on this occasion, they gave themselves an almighty scare. They certainly tempted us to think they might have suffered a temporary loss of identity when...

Italy are the team who have impressed me most at Euro 2016. They don’t really have any star names but they’ve already seen off two sides packed with them — Belgium and Spain — and face another on Saturday. The key to their success is their formation — and how well it is executed. Playing three at the back has often been dismissed as old hat in recent years, but we are beginning to see more teams flirt with the idea. And when you see a team like this employ it to perfection, who can blame them?

Europe's top youngsters are vying for the Young Player of the Tournament at UEFA EURO 2016 – and several have made eye-catching contributions in France. Presented by SOCAR, the new award is open to all players born on or after 1 January 1994 and will be chosen by the UEFA technical observers. Led by UEFA chief technical officer Ioan Lupescu and including Sir Alex Ferguson and Alain Giresse, the observers are attending all 51 EURO matches.

With the round of 16 over, eight teams are going home. Here's a look back at each of their Euro 2016 campaigns. Click on each country's name for an in depth view on what happened in France.

...Messi made his debut for Argentina in 2005, going on to make 113 appearances.

Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun-Times decided last week to purchase an AR-15 following the Pulse night club shooting in Orlando, Florida. His purpose, he said, was to demonstrate how simple it was and to explore Illinois’ gun laws concerning assault weapons. When he bought the gun, Steinberg planned to sell it back to the store. However, his purchase was stopped by the gun store, which canceled the transaction during Illinois’ required 24-hour waiting period after discovering he had lied on his background check about his history of alcohol abuse and domestic violence. In his article, Steinberg admitted that while...

Euro 2016 has given these players and managers the perfect platform to impress watching scouts and attract admirers

Have Northern Ireland met their match in Wales? Will Italy thwart Spain? Will Portugal pick up their first win? And will England slip up against Iceland?

The Euro 2016 group stages are at an end and England, Wales and Northern Ireland are all safely through to the last 16. But what have been the trends of the tournament so far? Our man in France, Adam Bate, takes a look at the late goals, striking issues and more…

It was never going to be easy. With 24 teams in the group stages at Euro 2016, that does not divide neatly into 16 qualifying for the knockout stages. The best four third-placed teams from the six groups progress to the last 16. So far, 12 teams have made it through: France, Switzerland, Wales, England, Slovakia, Germany, Poland, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Hungary and Northern Ireland. BBC Sport helps explain which sides can still go through, why yellow cards could prove crucial and who is in pole position in the 'third-place table'.

The new “Fracas” design has been launched to reflect the excitement of the "winner-takes-all" mentality of the tournament’s latter stages, says the company

England and Wales head into Monday's final Group B games at Euro 2016 still needing points to guarantee a place in the knockout stages. England, who top the table after drawing with Russia and beating Wales, face Slovakia in Saint-Etienne. Wales, who lie second after a win over Slovakia followed by a loss to England, take on Russia in Toulouse. The top two teams qualify, but the third-placed side could also make it through to the next round in France.

If you’re a casual football fan, there’s a chance you won’t be familiar with the 1983-84 season in Romania’s Divizia C, Serie VIII. It was so tight that in a 16-team league, with two points for a win, only two points separated second and 15th. Some teams avoided relegation on goal difference – and finished in the top half of the division. On the final day, the as-it-stands table probably exploded after 10 minutes. At least there was only one as-it-stands table. We’ll need at least two to make some kind of sense of this week’s matches at Euro 2016:...

Croatia have been charged over the crowd disturbances that marred the latter stages of their Euro 2016 match against the Czech Republic on Friday. Flares were thrown on the pitch and fighting broke out in the Croatian end during their 2-2 Group D draw. The referee Mark Clattenburg was forced to stop the game with four minutes left while a steward was almost hit by a firecracker, as was Croatian goalscorer Ivan Perisic. Croatia’s coach, Ante Cacic, described the individuals responsible for the trouble as “sports terrorists” and European football’s governing body has now confirmed the opening of disciplinary proceedings...

As Euro 2016 moves into its second week, we pick out three players to watch in Friday's fixtures… Italy's win over a star-studded Belgium sees them sit top of Group E going into their second group game, while their opponents, Sweden, began the tournament with a draw against a spirited Republic of Ireland. The Czech Republic, meanwhile, will be aiming to bounce back from their narrow defeat by Spain when they take on Group D leaders Croatia, who secured a 1-0 win over Turkey in their opening game, courtesy of a stunning strike from midfielder Luka Modric. The day's action...

The decision to expand Euro 2016 to a 24-team tournament suggested that the group stage would be somewhat cagey, particularly in the first matches, but the opening round of fixtures has met expectations. Who would have thought that Hungary would be the only team with more than a single-goal lead going into added time at this stage? There haven’t been many goals but a number of players have caught the eye. Here is our statistically calculated team of the round:

Dozens of Russian 'ultras' clashed with England fans chanting 'We hate Russia' during a fresh round of violence in the centre of Lille today. French police used pepper spray as two groups of supporters squared up in the northern French city – just hours after a separate flare-up at a bar. Punches were thrown during the brawl in the early hours of this morning after England fans had left a nearby pub. Russia's 'hyper violent' thugs had earlier ignored UEFA's threat to ban their country from Euro 2016 as they attacked English and Welsh supporters near the city's train station.