Cesc Reveals The Crazies

His match-winning penalty yesterday was excellent, a true midfielders side-footed stroke off the post and in. The type of stuff Andrea Pirlo and Sergio Ramoswell, nevermind.

But his method of extracting the most magic from his chance at glory boils down to something which took Tom Hanks several months on a deserted island to succumb to: talking to a toy made by underpaid children in Southeast Asia.

We had to make history, he said.

I had a funny feeling about the penalties and I was thinking about them this afternoon.

They told me initially to take the second one but I said no, give me the fifth as I had this premonition.

When I stepped up to take the penalty I said to the ball that we had to make history and it shouldnt let me down.

I talked to the ball four years ago [when he scored the winning penalty against Italy] and it didnt let me down.

No word on whether or not he thinks the ball spoke back to him.