England got the result they needed in Kiev, if not the performance the fans wanted. The other home nations had a mixed week.
Horse racing
Most racing fans will want to erase the 2012 St Leger and its winner from their memories but I'm not sure the 2013 edition is one to help to that. It's far from a vintage renewal and lacks a decent 'story' at this stage.
For the Leger winner these days look no further than John Gosden. He has a tremendous recent record in racing's oldest Classic and is looking to win it for the third time in four years and a fifth occasion in total.
Gosden is the master at training a slow developing three-year-old. This year
Excess Knowledge is his representative and I can't erase from my memory being at Glorious Goodwood in July and after Excess Knowledge's luckless second in the Gordon Stakes, you'd have expected connections to have been cursing their misfortune.
Not a bit of it. John Gosden was thrilled with the run and his mind was clearly already on Doncaster in September. He excels with a horse of this type.
Excess Knowledge has stamina on both sides of his pedigree and looks every inch a St Leger contender. He looks like a relentless galloper and his trainer this week described Doncaster as the best galloping track in Europe.
Another fancy this week is
Biographer in Friday's Mallard Stakes. I fancied this horse to run a big race in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot before he was withdrawn due to the quick ground. This week Biographer could finally get the cut in the ground he needs.
I'm assuming something was wrong at Newbury last time as he was never travelling but before that Biographer shaped like a stayer with a big race in him - granted some ease in the ground.
Last week the quick surface wasn't ideal for the Sky Sports News owned two-year-old
On Demand, who nevertheless ran a fine debut at Salisbury. She led until just before the furlong pole and had Alex Hammond and I very excited for a while. Andrew Balding's newcomers always come on a tonne from their debut and On Demand is a horse to keep a close eye on.
Vuelta a Espana
In amongst the football on Saturday, do try and see some of La Vuelta's penultimate stage.
First, because the race is so close and set to go down to the wire. Second, because it is as tough a stage as there is in cycling as the riders tackle cycling's Olympus, L'Angliru.
It's a leg breaker of a climb that you and I would only be able to walk up and it's the finish where infamously in 2002 David Millar protested about its severity by stopping a metre before the line and handed in his race number.
Race leader
Vincenzo Nibali showed fallibility in the final Pyrenean stage on Tuesday and any chinks in his armour will be brutally exposed on L'Angliru.
Rigoberto Uran is bound to feature heavily as he bids to make amends for the narrow defeat on Tuesday and finish Team Sky's race on a high.
His biggest danger is
Joaquim Rodriguez, who yet again is coming good in the third week of a Grand Tour and I'll be backing him to win Saturday's stage on Spain's equivalent of Alpe d'Huez and Mont Ventoux.
L'Angliru will be epic.
