Talking about some bronze drinking vessels found in France, a British historian had this to say on the subject of the Celts. He was talking about Britain but his comments hold true for other parts of the world where Celtic identity is regularly claimed. And marketed. Galicia, for example . . .“The problem of studying the ancient Celts is that we’re looking at a 5th century Greek stereotype compounded by a much later 19th century British and Irish one. The Greeks constructed an image of the Celtoi as a barbaric, violent people. That ancient typecasting was replaced, a couple of hundred years ago, by an equally fabricated image of a brooding, mystical Celtic identity that was far-removed from the greedy practicalities of the Anglo-Saxon industrial world – the romanticised Celtic twilight of Ossian and Yates. Since then, being Celtic has taken on further constructive connotations of national identity. Just look at the Celtic clovers and the crosses which for many Scots, Welsh and Irish are visible statements of their tribal identity. Or the fact that visitors are welcomed to modern Edinburgh with greetings in Gaelic, a Celtic language never historically spoken there. The notion of Celtic identity, although strongly felt and articulated today by many, turns out on investigation to be disturbingly elusive, unfixed and changing. The challenge, when looking at objects like the Basse Yutz flagons is how to get past those layers of distorting mythmaking.”

Cue angry comments from young men insisting that Galicia is a true Celtic nation and, so, very different from the rest of Spain. Shame about the lack of linguistic support for this contention.

But, anyway, if you followed my advice and bet on Paraguay today, you’ll have made some money. I didn’t, of course.

I’ve since realised that the left-hand column comprises the winning teams from each of the eight groups. So there was always a probability that more of these would win than lose. But seven out of seven so far?

More importantly, it’s half-time in the Spain-Portugal match and there’s no score so far. So, with luck, it will soon be eight out of eight. Vamos a ver!