The running order for the final:
1. Israel, 2. Poland, 3. Belarus, 4. Austria, 5. Armenia, 6. The Netherlands, 7. Moldova, 8. Hungary, 9. Italy
10. Denmark, 11. Portugal, 12. Azerbaijan, 13. Croatia, 14. Australia, 15. Greece, 16. Spain, 17. Norway, 18. United Kingdom
19. Cyprus, 20. Romania, 21. Germany, 22. Ukraine, 23. Belgium, 24. Sweden, 25. Bulgaria, 26. France
My thoughts:
Obviously favourites Italy and Portugal got the best draw, Italy before the break and Portugal second after the break. Poor Anja, the sacrificial lamb between them, and she got big attention in the press conference, which is interesting. I suspect Croatia did very good, because you don't get the last spot in your half for nothing. And to thing that this song was in everyones bottom 10 lists prior to the contest and now it has a chance for a top 10. And vice versa could be said about Armenia, which being so early could get lost and i don't think it would be in the top 10. LOL at EBU trying to suppress the polish diaspora by putting them in the dead spot.
The beginning of the second half is atrocious, frankly the whole middle part from Portugal to UK is very rough.. UK finally have a good song/staging, so they deserve a prime spot this time. But all the british fans saying they can win, please sit down. It will be UK's top result in ages, but nothing more than top 10, they won't have enough televotes to compete for the top 5. Romania with a great spot, another top 10 contender. Germany will go for the hatt-trick and get that last place again. It's either this or Spain, i can't see anyone else. The last 4 are all favourites, which leads me to think that one of them flopped in the semi, because they can't possibly schedule them together. Maybe they think all of them would be visiable enough since they are last before the voting. I would switch Norway and Sweden to give the middle part some power.
Next to last seem very good for us, they usually say 24-25 isn't particulary good, but i think that beautiful Alma, could get overshadowed comming after Kristian, since the songs seem very similar.