The group stage of the Under 21 Championship comes to a head during the next two days with England the only nation sure of advancement. In group B tonight, Germany will take on England needing only one point to join the English and Spain will have to win against Finland while England win over Germany in order to go through. Group A is still more even, with all four nations still able to reach the semifinals. Tuesday will see Group A leaders Italy take on Belarus while hosts Sweden meet Serbia. The favourites to get through must be the Italians, who only need one point against bottom-team Belarus for advancement. In the second match of the night, it will be winner takes all with Sweden going through in case of a draw.

Over in South Africa, mighty Spain took a couple of world records off the Brazilians when they beat the hosts 2-0. They are now alone with their record of 15 consecutive wins, one more than Brazil, France and Australia, and they drew level with Brazil in going 35 matches unbeaten. The Spaniards go through to the semifinals of the Confederation Cup together with South Africa after Iraq only managed a 0-0 draw against New Zealand. Group B saw a huge turnaround last night when lowly USA took second place in the group after 3-0 against fancied Egypt. This result meant that Italy, second early on in the evening and favourites to join Brazil, failed to qualify after going down 0-3 to just Brazil.

Have you turned the television volume down while watching the Confederations Cup? Because of the cacophony of sound that usually accompanies the matches? Well, you're missing something unique in football right now. The "vuvuzela", a foot-long traditional trumpet has received special permission from FIFA to be taken into this year's Confederation Cup matches as well as next year's World Cup.

All the best.