Like “Don’t eat yellow snow”, it should be one of the first things you teach the children: “Never bet against the Germans.” They are at it again at Euro 2008, semi-finalists after the recidivists among us, who should really know better, wrote them off.

When they lost to Croatia, then made horribly hard work of beating feeble Austria 1-0, it seemed that this time, for once, they were not genuine contenders. Wrong again. Digits were duly extracted against Portugal last Thursday, and after a vibrant quarter-final that was handsomely typical of the championship to date, it was Germany who marched triumphantly into the last four, where they play Turkey in Basle on Wednesday.

They had expected to be facing Croatia again, and were as surprised as the rest of us when the Turks, having fluked their way through Group A at the expense of the Czech Republic and Switzerland, eliminated the Croats in Vienna on Friday night.

In a match that was one of the rare disappointments these past two weeks, Turkey burgled a win, against the run of play, on penalties, and will be rank outsiders among the semi-finalists.

The Germans, who regarded Croatia as much more of a threat, could hardly believe their luck, and probably the only observer not taken aback by Friday’s outcome was Fatih Terim, who is clearly something of a seer, as well as Turkey’s effervescent coach.

On the eve of the tournament he said: “I promised we would qualify for these finals and would then prove to be the surprise package. We’ve fulfilled the first part of our mission, now we have to take care of the second, and I’m confident we will do well.” Terim’s prophecy was more impressive than his team’s play in a quarter-final where Croatia created nearly all the chances, only to do a passable imitation of England in the shoot-out, missing the target with two penalties and having a third saved.

Germany, of course, don’t make those mistakes. There is always a temptation to damn the old enemy with faint praise, and the easy way to do it on this occasion was to suggest the ubermen-schen were too big and strong for little Portugal. It is probably not too far from the truth, either. According to Luiz Felipe Scolari (and who would dare gainsay “Big Phil’s” stats?), Germany had an average 7cm (2.7in) per man height advantage.

What is also true, however, is that they played good, constructive football that was entirely in keeping with the attacking spirit of what is developing into possibly the best international tournament I have seen in 30 years of reporting on them.

Five more goals were rattled home in another thoroughly entertaining match, and the only pity was that Basle’s St Jakob Park is so small that fewer than 40,000 were able to witness it first-hand. It is a common problem here, and will be so again when the same venue stages the first semi-final on Wednesday.

The majority of neutrals will have been in Portugal’s corner, but Cristiano Ronaldo and company were left with the Mat-terhorn to climb after conceding twice in the first 25 minutes. Given this demoralising start, it was to their great credit that they made such a good game of it in the second half, when the outcome might conceivably have been different had not Pepe, the centre-half, somehow contrived to head over Jens Lehmann’s crossbar from barely two yards.

This is not meant to suggest that the result was inequitable. Scolari was correct when he made the point that Michael Ballack had been guilty of a push before heading in Bastian Schweinsteiger’s free kick for Germany’s decisive third goal but, judged on balance of play, 3-2 was just about right.

Chelsea’s new manager won’t have it, of course, but he was at fault on two counts. Despite his denials a week ago, the morale of his squad was undermined by the timing of the announcement that he was to leave. After he went public with his decision, Portugal played two matches and lost both. QED. Scolari also came out second best in the tactical battle last Thursday, when Joachim Loew stymied him by switching from his previous 4-4-2 to 4-5-1. Outnumbered in midfield (Ronaldo and Simao are wingers, with no pretensions otherwise), Portugal were unable to assemble their pleasing, passing game until it was too late. At 2-0 down, they resembled Lilliputians in the Land of the Giants.

Promoted from within to replace Jurgen Klinsmann after the 2006 World Cup, Loew appears to be everything Steve McClaren was not - an accomplished yet self-effacing technician. After playing for Stuttgart and Eintracht Frankfurt, among others, he went back to Stuttgart as coach in 1995 and took them to the old European Cup-Winners Cup Final in 1998, when they lost 1-0 to Chelsea. After winning the Austrian title with Tirol Innsbruck in 2002, “Jogi”, as he is known, had brief spells with Austria Vienna and Fenerbahce, in Turkey, before becoming Klinsmann’s right-hand man.

When the celebrated striker-turned-coach stepped down, there was never any doubt who would succeed him, and under Loew’s tutelage the Germans qualified for the European Championship for the 10th time in succession, a record. Winners in 1972, ’80 and ’96, they were also runners-up in ’76 and ’92, and the last time they were not present at the finals was back in 1968 (as West Germany).

Loew has effective man-management skills as well as a tactician’s brain. When Schweinsteiger was sent off for retaliation in added time against Croatia and suspended for the Austria game, the coach told him his action was indefensible and that he owed his teammates a “big performance” against Portugal. Suitably motivated, the Bayern Munich midfielder said beforehand: “I must show something special now and give something back to the team”, went out and was man of the match.

Intriguingly, in view of Fabio Capello’s comments last week to the effect that England needed to show more of their old fighting spirit and emulate the fervour of the Croats, Loew says of the Germans’ poised approach: “We must not go back to those days of overreliance on our traditional values. Players from San Marino can run around and fight, too. We’ve made significant progress in that respect in the past three years, and I feel we are now back on a level with the big European countries.”

Ballack, the captain, is a Loew fan. Looking back on the tournament so far, he said: “We changed the way we played on Thursday [to 4-5-1] and really benefited from that. We had more physical presence in midfield, which was important, especially so against Portugal. I felt our midfield were more involved in the game.

“In our first two matches the ideas were missing and so was the creativity. Mental freshness was lacking, that’s why changing the formation helped us. The first two games were not as we wanted them to be, we knew we hadn’t performed to our best, but at least we progressed.”

Of his new role, supporting the lone striker, Miroslav Klose, at the point of the midfield, Ballack said: “It was a very different position for me and I was able to get in the box more. It was important that the whole team worked at that, and I think we managed it quite well.”

Lehmann, the goalkeeper who has just joined Stuttgart from Arsenal, admitted victory over Croatia had been taken for granted. “We underestimated them, that was the problem,” he said. “I wouldn’t say the group stages were really that difficult.

“Playing Portugal was always going to be harder, and when we have to play at that level we know 4-5-1 suits us more because it’s less risky and it’s a better way to cope with the opposition’s attacking capabilities.”

The grizzled old keeper’s 39th birthday is beckoning, so is this his international swansong? “A last European Championship for me, definitely”, he said. And the 2010 World Cup? “You never know . . . ”

The Germans will be there, with or without him. Bet on it.