Historically, the day before the final of any major tournament is notable for one key reason – it is the occasion we get to see the most pointless, irritating, useless football match of the year.

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, under normal circumstances today would be third and fourth place play-off. The match in which two heartbroken teams get to battle it out for the utterly irrelevant title of third best team in the contest..

We’ve all experienced the pointlessness of this match before. I, for example, clearly remember the World Cup in 1990 when England lost to Italy in the game where bronze is the only medal on offer. It was a mind-numbing experience made bearable only by the fact that it was between Malta’s fiercest rivals.

The humiliation for the players who have just seen their final dreams shattered must be immense – having to hang around in the hotel while the only thing anybody and everybody cares about is the final itself must be soul destroying.

It’s like making two badly injured animals perform tricks for your pleasure instead of being humane and putting them out of their misery.

I mean who remembers the team that finished third in any major tournament? Nobody apart from the statisticians. Runners-up are always remembered, but second runners-up? Not a chance.

Luckily, however, we won’t be treated to this ludicrous spectacle this year after the powers that be realised it was nonsensical and scrapped it.

Russia and Turkey have been spared having to drag their weary, emotionally drained bodies back on to the pitch for 90 minutes of tedium. Their players are probably already back home packing their bags for a deserved summer holiday.

Which means we can concentrate on the stuff that matters, namely the final itself.

I have been doing some opinion research on your behalf and I think it is fair to say that, at this stage, Spain are what you would call the overwhelming favourites. Based on performances thus far few people seem to be giving Germany any chance.

But I think all the experts who have this down as foregone conclusion should put away the sangria for a moment and take a few deep breaths. This is Germany we are talking about, a team that has been written off so many times as uninspiring yet still gone on to win tournament after tournament.

I agree that, if things go with the form book, then Spain should be crowned Champions of Europe tomorrow night.

But so little has gone according to plan in the tournament and I can’t help feel their may yet be one more twist in the tail…