9.05am: Morning. the quarter-finals start tonight. Maybe they've started already, if you count build-up as a start. The first game is Cristiano Ronaldo (and people employed to pass to Cristiano Ronaldo) against Czech Republic, who are this tear's Greece. Although Greece may be this year's Greece. Unless England are.

Anyway, some stuff you may have missed/can look forward to today:

• France, as is their wont, had a pop at each other following the defeat to Sweden.
• Daniel Taylor on Roy Hodgson's preparations ahead of the Italy game.
• Miss Zlatan? Us too. He features in our weekly Classic YouTube round-up.
• Paul Doyle will be covering Czech Republic v Portugal from 7pm.
• Football Daily-ish is back tonight. Woof!

9.21am: Italy's Daniele De Rossi has issued a come-and-get-me-provided-you-have-loads-of-money plea to English clubs. "I have received many offers from English football. And I must say that I feel attraction for it. I like English football very much. I think now it's probably more interesting than Italian football," he said. "There are lots of outstanding and talented players, as is the case for Spain as well," he added, hedging his bets.

9.28am: England news from the wires! "Scrum-half Danny Care and flanker James Haskell have been recalled to the
England side for the third Test against South Africa on Satur..." Ah. Sorry about that. Still, good news for Care and Haskell though, eh?

9.35am: Germany's Mats Hummels is the player of Euro 2012 so far. And you can't criticise me for saying that, because it's a statement rubber stamped by you, the reader. Steven Gerrard, by the way, is your England player of the tournament.

9.43am: Today's webchat will take place at the earlier than usual time of 11am. And your host will be Paul Wilson. I'll put a link up closer to the time.

9.55am: Jermain Defoe will rejoin the England squad tomorrow. He had returned home for a couple of days for his father's funeral.

10.06am: Vaguely England-related news. QPR have signed Rob Green on a two-year deal.

10.17am: Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini reckons Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli should start against England. "Mario should always play," Mancini said to Gazzetta dello Sport, preaching what he doesn't practise. "He is the best and, with him, the national team is much stronger."

Mancini also says that England will indulge in our national pastime, hoofing it up in the air. "Italy will have to be aware of them on the break, but also make the most of their own characteristics - technique, speed and possession," he added. "It would be an error to take on England with force and aerial play."

10.26am: Wayne Rooney has been having a chat to TalkSport and surprisingly thinks England can beat Italy. England will have to pull together though. And take each games as it etceteras. "We're more organised than ever. The lads have all been fighting for each other, we want to do this together, so I think we've got a great chance. We feel good, we've prepared well and we're really looking forward to it," he said. "Maybe a few years ago I would have run round trying to do everything in the first 20 minutes, but you've got to try and feel your way into the game."

10.40am: Rumour is that Joe Hart is being given a DVD of all Italy's penalty takers before the quarter-final. Surely all the Italy players need to do is the complete opposite of what they usually do. Unless Joe Hart has figured that out and they double-bluff him and do exactly as expected. This is making my head hurt.

10.41am: Paul Wilson will be online from 11am to answer your question in today's live webchat. Click here to join in.

10.57am: Right. Paul Wilson is now answering your questions on all things Euro 2012 over on the webchat.

11.05am: Alan Shearer update from Tim Jowett. "Exciting update in the previously featured blog segment 'Where's Alan Shearer and his shiny luggage"' I can report he successfully picked up said luggage at Warsaw airport off the early BA from London, before walking off with a couple of heavies and as I type no doubt is working on his inimitable brand of humour and insight for tonights big game. He was looking suspiciously tanned and sporting a pretty bling watch.

"Looking forward to the game tonight, though disappointed the Poles aren't featuring. Predicting a thoroughly entertaining 3-2 to the Portuguese, which no doubt means a dour encounter settled by a late own goal off the knee of Gebre Sellasie."

11.18am: Some team news ahead of tonight's game. Tomas Rosicky, who has been recovering from injury, won't start. "Tomas will certainly not play from the beginning," team manager Vladimir Smicer told reporters. "But if we are down toward the end he could perhaps try to help us."

11.34am: It looks like Ashley Young, who received a nasty blow on his shins – isn't that what shinpads are for? – will be for the Italy quarter-final. "All 22 players either trained or did recovery work," said an FA spokesman following training this morning. Jermain Defoe was not present, having returned to England for his father's funeral.

11.47am: More on penalties. Top penalty-takers (and Gareth Southgate) give their views on how to score from the spot. This may look like a cheap stunt to promote a popular type of lager but isn't. Despite shoehorning of mentions of said lager into the video. Actually, for some reason I really fancy a pint of lager all of a sudden.

12.04pm: Joe Hart is holding forth at a press conference. On England penalties he says "he'd put his name forward" if he was asked to take one. He says he would look forward to a shoot-out "but hopefully it won't come to that". He says Joleon Lescott knows Balotelli's game through playing with him at Man City. He is asked if he knows how to push Mario's buttons. He says it "isn't on-field people" who do that.

12.07pm: Has Hart researched penalties? "I've done my research, I know where Italy's players put them but anyone could see that on YouTube". Has he been saving shots in practice? He smiles and says "No, because everyone is so good at penalties".

12.10pm: Hart is asked if the atmosphere in Krakow has helped. He seems sceptical and says the management structure is more important than "looking at an interesting statue or having a pizza".

12.12pm: Hart is asked if the last eight is enough. "No, because we're winners, we're here to win ... we're not here to stop people getting off our backs." He's doing "as much penalty-taking practice as anyone else. I do like my penalties".

12.14pm: What do players do to relax? "There's a table tennis players, a lot of people play Fifa. There's not much free time though with travelling and practising."

12.15pm: Hart is asked by an Italian journalist if he has a problem with British tabloids. "Whatever is written about him, doesn't bother him. He has broad shoulders."

12.31pm: The weather forecast for tonight's game says there is a chance of thunderstorms. The roof at the National Stadium was closed for the opening match of the tournament but both teams complained of the humidity. However, both Portugal and Czech Republic says they would be OK with playing under a closed roof. "In the morning we held a team meeting with both teams and there was a question about closing the roof. Both teams agreed if such a need arises," said UEFA spokeswoman Ewa Prokopiak.

12.42pm: "It's time we kicked you out of the euro" read t-shirts printed out by Greece fans ahead of their last eight meeting with Germany. Paul Wilson has blogged on a match with some added spice.

12.52pm: Here's Daniel Green: "Don't turn your nose up at Joe Hart's penalty taking ability, he is two for two. Look at this. And this. I'd have him up first." I love a penalty-taking goalkeeper. It's partly because they tend to subsribe to the Hit It As Hard As Possible school of thought. See Kevin Pressman's effort from back in the day: it has the trajectory of a normal goal-kick, which sees it smack into the top corner.

12.59pm: Gary Neville has been talking about his role in England's coaching staff. "I was quite passionate on the pitch, but on the bench, I can't control myself," said Neville today. "It's good to have someone calming next to me, because I'm bobbing up and down like a cork really." Like a what?! Oh. A cork.

Neville also praised Roy Hodgson's influence on the team. "[He] is calm, doesn't get carried away by things, brings a great deal of humility, trusts in his players and has faith in them and I think they are recognising that he is someone they like and want to play for.

"I think that's important and one thing about the group in this last three, four weeks, the work rate, the endeavour, the effort has been absolutely incredible."

1.10pm: Afternoon, Tom Bryant taking over for a short while. Deeply surprised by the shock news of a big row in the France camp. Fortunately their deputy manager Alain Boghossian is on hand to point out that, though some words were said, it wasn't as bad as 2010 when the France team embarked on an all-out civil war. So that's encouraging.

"There were quarrels, well, let's say exchanges, but it's normal in a dressing room," he said. "It would have been worse if nothing had happened. It's like in a couple, if you sweep the problems under the rug, at some point, it will explode." All of which leads us to offer a warning not to walk around on any of Alain Boghossian's soft furnishings in case they go off like a landmine.

Midfielder Florent Malouda is in similarly incendiary mood, saying: "It's normal to send some missiles in a dressing room after a defeat."

Would it be too much to suggest that, with all this inflammatory talk, it's like a tinder box in the French dressing room?

1.24pm: With Alvaro Arbeloa's form for Spain at right-back coming under question, there has been talk that he should be replaced by Juanfran for the game against France, who will use Frank Ribery to attack his position. Juanfran, though, is not having a bar of it.

"He is my team mate and I will defend him to the death," the 27-year-old said.
"Right now the coach has placed his trust in Alvaro for that position and I have enormous respect for that. He has my confidence and the confidence of the whole team. He played well in the group stage in my opinion and had a very good season at Real Madrid."

On the subject of Ribery, Juanfran added: "At any moment he can create a scoring chance for himself or provide an assist. He is one of France's most important players and we just hope he doesn't have a good day and that we know how to stop both him and his fellow attackers."

1.31pm: Talking of Spain, their training appears to consist of running around, playing 'it', holding hands and giving each other the odd hug. Can't see Andy Carroll doing this, somehow - which probably speaks volumes.

1.42pm: Here's what happened the last time Portgual and Czech Republic met, including a little-known goal from Karel Poborsky, that no-one's really been talking about in the build-up to this game.

1.44pm: Poor old Cristiano Ronaldo. As my colleague John Ashdown has just noted, try as the Portuguese might, he just can't escape Lionel Messi. Tonight he'll be facing 'The Czech Lionel Messi' as Uefa have dubbed Vaclav Pilar. To be fair to Pilar, he's not banging the drum entirely enthusiastically: "I'm not very tall," he says, "so that's also a reason why we are kind of similar".

1.51pm: Here's the latest in our experts' network series. This time it's Stavros Drakoularakos on Greece v Germany, the battle for the euro and the Euros - a great read.

[Greece] don't have the talent of the Dutch, they don't possess the flair of the Spaniards, they didn't inherit the footballing culture of the Italians, they don't even have the automated style of play of the Germans. But they have a fighting spirit and refuse to give up without giving their all.

1.55pm: "Given you've mentioned Karel Poborsky, it would be churlish of me not to send you a link to this video," emails Alister Wedderburn. "It shows a Belgian schoolteacher taking his obsession with the man a wee bit too far, in my opinion."

2.18pm: As Uli Kraeling points out, this is of course the best Germany v Greece match of all time.

2.22pm: The Inter president Massimo Moratti has chipped into the conversation (that's what we're calling it, apparently) about Mario Balotelli. He says that, basically, he doesn't trust anyone so you're best off just letting him do his thing.

"I am always ready to forgive everything," Moratti said to Italian newspaper Il Giorno. "I have an idea of what he [Balotelli] is like because I know Mario since he was a boy. He has a wonderful family, who adore him and protect him and he repays that affection. But there is something in him that makes him distrustful of everyone, even those that appreciate him, as is the case of (Italy coach Cesare) Prandelli, who called him up to the national team."

And with that - here's Tom Lutz back from his lunch and in fine fettle.

2.41pm: Talking about the Karel Poborsky goal below, I just remembered I was actually at the game. Such was the ridiculous trajectory of the goal that I assumed it was a deflection until I got home and watched the replay. One other thing: the stadium had big gaps (around 26,000 in Villa Park). For all that Euro 96 was "Football coming home" there were some terrible attendances (19,106 for a group game at St James' Park, and 43,000 for the semi-final at Old Trafford when the capacity was 55,000). Maybe it's just as well England hasn't got the World Cup.

2.47pm: Not Euro 2012 but worth a moment of your time anyway, this from the news wire:

Egypt international Mido is on the verge of completing a move to Barnsley from Zamalek.

The well-travelled former Tottenham and Middlesbrough striker is on the verge of ending a third spell with his boyhood club, where he has fallen out of favour following a wage dispute.

The master returns!

2.56pm: "There may be another reason for the lower attendances at Euro 96," says Peter Davies. "I was working as a tour guide for the German team in Manchester when that huge IRA bomb went off on the 15 June. The town centre was chaos for weeks. And I think a lot of fans who had intended to travel to Britain stayed at home." Maybe but that 19,000 attendance was in Newcastle on 13 June, two days before the bomb went off, and there were plenty of other duff attendances before 15 June (22,000 for Turkey v Croatia at the City Ground). I'm not blaming fans particularly – English or foreign – as ticket prices were very high, which I think had a bearing on things.

3.03pm: "Re: Euro 96: They weren't that high were they?" asks Michael Spring. "I got a ticket for the England v Spain quarter final for thirty odd quid. Also remember seeing Wembley heaving for the England vs Netherlands game." I was 17 at the time, so £30 seemed a lot – my Saturday job only paid £1.75 an hour. All England games were sold out – it's just the others that suffered, suggesting it was more a tournament for England fans than football fans.

3.08pm: "Is it just me or is Joe Hart the only likeable player in the squad and worth a listen in interviews?" asks Harry Bronsdon. "Hope he scores the winning penalty against Buffon." I always think Leighton Baines and Danny Welbeck seem like nice fellas. And I can honestly say that Jack Butland has never done anything to offend me in my life (he also has an excuse for not going to Romania v Bulgaria at Euro 96 because he was only three at the time). Agreed, Hart did come across very well at the press conference.

3.18pm: "I was there to see Karel Poborsky's lob in the flesh (ooer) and I remember everyone at the other end of the ground going 'FFS!' (we all seemed to be supporting the Czechs because) when he scooped it up, assuming that it was going to go miles over the bar," says Tony Cowards. "No-one quite realised what had happened when it dropped into the goal, it must stand as one of the highest lobbed goals." Incidentally, it's Michel Platini's birthday today, he's 57. And shares his birthday with another European great, Dean Saunders.

3.25pm: A bit more from Hart on England's attitude in the tournament. "The whole point in coming here is not to keep people happy and keep people off our backs," he said. "We've not come here so we can go home and not get bothered.

"We've come here to win games and be successful for us and for the country and make people proud of the English football team. If it doesn't go right - I don't like talking about that - we'd like to leave having given everything."

Mario Balotelli at work. Photograph: Lee Smith/Action Images

3.28pm: Mario has been training very hard ahead of the England game.

3.34pm: "From memory, weren't the Euro 96 attendance problems partly to do with the ticket system? I got lucky with the ticket I bought in advance of the draw, ending up behind the goal when Gazza scored," says David Hopkins. "But I seem to remember that to buy tickets for knock-out games in advance you were expected to also buy them for several group games, thereby discouraging less well-off fans from games away from Wembley." Agreed, London 2012 has had its criticism but the ticket sales have been smoother than Euro 96.

"It is worth pointing out that Euro 96 currently has the highest average attendance of all the European Championships to feature 16 teams," says James Carroll. "Over the 31 games the average attendance was 41,166, higher than in Netherlands/Belgium, Portugal and Switzerland/Austria. Fact (according to Wikipedia)." Fair enough. Although, I guess it's the badly attended games that stick out. For example, this year the lowest attendance has 31,000 for Denmark v Portugal, but that was in a stadium with a capacity of 34,000. You just don't get the huge gaps you did at Euro 96.

3.37pm: I am off home for the day, but John Ashdown will take you through to the end of the afternoon. Thanks for your emails.

3.49pm: The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, has visited the Maracana Stadium in Rio today with the Brazil World Cup winning captain Carlos Alberto Torres, it says on this here government press release.

Apparently "during the visit, Carlos Alberto told the deputy prime minister that he backs England to beat Italy on Sunday, and that he thinks England could win Euro 2012." So now you know.

4.05pm: Today's Fiver, featuring suspicious yellow clouds, incontinent cows and the refreshing honesty of Antonio Cassano is now available for your perusal.

4.11pm: "If it's Platini's 57th birthday today then that means it's 26 years to the day that France took on Brazil in the quarter final of Mexico 86," writes Fraser Mann. "A superb encounter I think you'll agree. It was a strange old day for Platini: scored in normal time but utterly skied a penalty in the shoot-out."

4.20pm: It sounds like Poland are struggling to keep their Euro 2012 party going. This on the wires from Reuters:

Four days after Poland's first-round exit, Euro 2012 is sliding off the front pages and organisers are desperately seeking ways of keeping party zones which have seen three million visitors in less than three weeks humming.

Officials say 30,000 visited Warsaw's fan zone before and during the final game of the group stages in co-host Ukraine on Tuesday, down from 170,000 for Poland's loss to the Czech Republic on Saturday. But workers in Gdansk and Warsaw say that numbers even during games have been minuscule for several days.

"The truth is that when Poland lost, everyone left in about 15 minutes flat, leaving their drinks behind them," says one of the girls on a Coca-Cola stall at the fan zone. "It was almost like one of those western scenes with tumbleweed in the desert."

4.28pm: According to Aleksandar Holiga, our Experts' Network man in the Croatia, Everton were closing in on a €7m move for Croatia's Mario Mandzukic before the tournament started. Unfortunately for the Toffees, Mandzukic's performances in Poland and Ukraine mean Wolfsburg are now asking for €15m.

4.37pm: Uefa's press kits are always good for a bit of pre-match trivia. Here's a few snippets ahead of tonight's game:

• Current Czech Rep coach Michal Bilek helped Czechoslovakia qualify for the 1990 World Cup, eliminating Portugal in the process. On 6 October 1989 he scored both goals in a 2-1 victory in Prague, converting an 11th-minute penalty and then hitting the winner in the 83rd minute.

• Czechoslovakia booked qualification with a 0-0 draw in Lisbon on 15 November 1989 on a night when Portugal needed a three-goal victory. Jan Stejskal, now the Czech Republic's goalkeeping coach, was between the posts for both matches.

• Michal Kadlec's father Miroslav and Czech team manager Vladimir Smicer both appeared in the EURO '96 quarter-final win against Portugal, whose team included João Pinto, now director of the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF). Pinto later played alongside Poborský at SL Benfica between 1998 and 2000.

• Petr Cech and Raul Meireles are team-mates at Chelsea. The goalkeeper got the better of Eduardo and Nélson Oliveira's Benfica in the quarter-finals of this season's UEFA Champions League, Meireles scoring Chelsea's final
goal in a 3-1 aggregate win.

• Tomas Rosicky helped Arsenal FC to a 6-2 aggregate win against an FC Porto side including Bruno Alves, Rolando, Meireles and Silvestre Varela in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League in 2009-10.

4.45pm: Right, that about wraps up today's live blog. Be sure to stick around for live MBM coverage of tonight's first quarter-final and head back tomorrow for all the buildup to Germany v Greece. But for now, cheerio!