Shearer says: “Wales can go home with their heads held high”

It’s been a staggering campaign for Wales. What they achieved, how they got there and the whole demeanour around the Welsh was refreshing. They fully deserved it. They took everything in their stride and they made a lot of fans during the tournament.

I was at their semi-final in Lyon where before, during and after the game their fans were just superb. They were very appreciative of what the players had given them and vice versa. It is the way it should be. They can all go home with their heads held high.

There was hardly anything in the game before Ronaldo’s piece of brilliance. His header then changed everything. The second goal came soon after which you could see the air sucked out of the Welsh players. To be fair to them though, they did not cave in at that point. They gave it everything but unfortunately they were beaten by the better side on the night.

It was a superb header from Ronaldo. You can practice set-pieces and defending all day on the training ground but sometimes you have to hold your hands up and say that was a piece of brilliance. The way he stayed in the air, timed the header and the power he got behind it, was remarkable. We’ve seen that on numerous occasions with Ronaldo. Trying to defend Ronaldo when he can leap that high and generate that much power is arguably impossible.

In the game last night, Germany dominated possession, however, as we have seen countless times, particularly in the Premier League last season, if you have possession, you have to do something with it. Germany did not have that killer-instinct. They were missing Mario Gomez who was out through injury and Thomas Muller has not had the same tournament which he had two years ago where he was superb at the World Cup.

I did think it was a harsh penalty. Schweinsteiger led with his arm but it was ball to hand. He had no time to react. We had a bit of a disagreement in the BBC studio. Thierry Henry and Rio Ferdinand both felt it was a penalty and I was arguing otherwise. I don’t think you can say that was a deliberate handball. It was a big turning point in the game.