THE star of the tournament emerged last night.

No, it's not Wayne Rooney, but Valentin Ivanov, who refereed the Italy-Bulgaria game last night.

He did what no other referee at Euro 2004 has been able to do -- give a penalty for blatant wrestling in the box.

The biggest frustration at the tournament so far has been the lack of punishment imposed on defenders who wrap their arms around opposing players to prevent them moving when the ball is played into the penalty area.

Such pushing, shoving and grappling has happened in every game in Portugal and should have resulted in a penalty on every occasion if referees were following anything slightly resembling the laws of the game.

The result has been a succession of ridiculous free-for-alls, especially from set-pieces, which have gone unpunished. This has given defenders carte blanche to hold and throw opponents to the ground in the box.

That was until Russian referee Ivanov struck a blow for common sense by penalising Marco Materazzi for wrestling with Dimitar Berbatov.

Outstanding left-winger Martin Petrov did justice to the ref's decision by converting from the spot and Italy were struggling from that moment until the final whistle which signalled they were on their way home.

Italy can have no complaints. They went into the tournament as second favourites and failed to justify their ranking in any of their group games.

The so-called experts claim Italy is the best league -- or at least one of the two best -- in the world. But if their performance at Euro 2004 is anything to go by, you can give me the Premiership any time.

Italy have been weak up front, lacking ideas behind the strikers, average in midfield and uncharacteristically suspect at the back.

Their fans have not turned up in great numbers and their golden boy, Francesco Totti, has been the biggest disgrace of the tournament by spitting in the face of Denmark's Christian Poulsen, which rightly got him banned for three games.

Italy's fate should be a warning to England as to how fortunes can change so starkly.

The hype in this country over the last couple of days has been over the top.

England have done well to qualify but will have to improve to beat hosts Portugal tomorrow night, and must then move up another level to reach the final.

They can do it, but not by relying on Sol Campbell to keep getting them out of trouble at one end and Wayne Rooney to keep producing heroics at the other.