The Löw machine rolls on as Lahm slaughters Turkey

Well all the clichés about the Germans were out in force for this semi-final although they actually progressed to the final through skillful counter-attacking football rather than ruthless efficiency, giving Turkey a taste of their own medicine with a last minute winner from Philippe Lahm,

Senturk had, once again, set up a grandstand finish with his 86th minute equaliser just reward for a fantastic team performance, especially in light of their injuries and suspensions which meant that Fatih Terim had only 13 outfield players available to him.

Turkey had had the better chances in a electrically charged atmosphere in all senses, with the worldwide TV feed from Vienna being interrupted by a massive thunderstorm as the sparks flew on the pitch (many people missed the second German goal as the link went down and even worse, in the UK some people were forced to listen to Radio 5's Alan Green, oh the humanity!).

The match had started with the underdogs first out of the traps, Kazim-Richards thumped a shot against the crossbar early on and when he struck it for a second time, with a looping shot over the befuddled Lehmann, it rebounded to Ugur Boral who scuffed a weak effort that deceived the German keeper with it's lack of pace and trickled between his legs and over the line. 

Due to their late, late strikes, Turkey had managed to reach the semis despite only holding the lead in their first four matches for approximately 9 minutes and they only extended this to 13 before the Germans drew level.

In the first twenty minutes Germany had barely gotten out of their own half and looked a totally different team to the one that had blitzed Portugal, however with their first real foray upfield they restored parity, Lukas Podolski running purposefully to the byline and crossing low from the left for Schweinsteiger to expertly flick home. In a tournament crammed full of quick breakaway goals, this was once again a great example of what can be achieved with pace and precision passing.

Turkey went into halftime unlucky not to have the lead that their play had merited. Lehmann having been forced into several saves including free-kicks from Altintop and Boral.

Into the second half and the Germans took the lead. Rustu, who'd gone from villian to penalty saving hero in the blink of an eye against Croatia, had a rush of blood and came for a Lahm cross that he was never going to reach and Miroslav Klose headed into the unguarded net.

This left the stage set for Senturk's late equaliser but ultimately the Turkish supporters were silenced by the Lahm (I can't believe I've stooped so low as to steal an atrocious pun from Gary Lineker.

So the pre-tournament favourites advance into the final despite not having played particularly well, although you have to admire their sheer tenacity and whenever the chips are down someone, in this case Schweinsteiger and the defensively poor but decisive going forward, Lahm, making the difference.

Turkey go home having won plenty of fans with their tag as the "comeback kings" although they were ultimately hoist by their own petard.