Sizzling football as Euro ends

VIENNA – Euro 2008 will enter soccer’s record books as an outstanding tournament for what happened both on and off the field – and in the skies above the Austrian and Swiss cities where the 31 matches were played.

Open, attacking games played in a true spirit of sportsmanship; dramatic late goals and memorable atmospheres created by well behaved fans both in the stadiums and in fan zones in city centres, highlighted the event. Uefa president Michel Platini referred to the tournament as “sizzling” at the end of the group stage and the second half of the tournament was just as good as the first.Both semi-finals and the final were dramatic, open matches, settled in 90 minutes without recourse to penalties and despite the high stakes involved, all played in a great sporting spirit.Only three players were sent off in the 31 matches but none of those red cards were shown for particularly nasty fouls.The failure of the two co-hosts to advance from the group stage was expected but their early elimination did little to detract from the tournament.They merely switched their allegiances to other countries with Swiss fans in particular buying up orange Dutch shirts after their own team went out.The Dutch fans transformed the sedate Swiss capital of Berne into something resembling Amsterdam-by-the-Alps with an estimated 150 000 of them flooding into the city for the matches against Italy and France.They also appeared to outnumber Russian fans by a thousand to one in Basel where they played their quarter-final and the tournament, not to mention the fan zones, became a little quieter when they finally returned home after Russia beat them 3-1.Croatian fans, Spaniards and Germans from just across the border also helped create an ambience that lifted the spirits and with Uefa reporting more than three million people visiting the fan zones, the number of arrests were insignificant.The one thing that Uefa could not control was the weather and a number of matches were played in heavy rain with thunder and lightning adding a dramatic backdrop.A torrential storm during the semi-final between Germany and Turkey in Basel on June 25 affected TV feeds with millions of fans around the world losing pictures of the dramatic closing stages of the game which Germany won 3-2.Uefa’s executive committee is likely to vote to expand the competition to 24 teams when it debates the issue in September, when it will also decide whether the next tournament in 2012 will be staged in Ukraine and Poland as planned, or be moved elsewhere because of myriad problems in Kiev and Warsaw.Nampa-ReutersUefa president Michel Platini referred to the tournament as “sizzling” at the end of the group stage and the second half of the tournament was just as good as the first.Both semi-finals and the final were dramatic, open matches, settled in 90 minutes without recourse to penalties and despite the high stakes involved, all played in a great sporting spirit.Only three players were sent off in the 31 matches but none of those red cards were shown for particularly nasty fouls.The failure of the two co-hosts to advance from the group stage was expected but their early elimination did little to detract from the tournament.They merely switched their allegiances to other countries with Swiss fans in particular buying up orange Dutch shirts after their own team went out.The Dutch fans transformed the sedate Swiss capital of Berne into something resembling Amsterdam-by-the-Alps with an estimated 150 000 of them flooding into the city for the matches against Italy and France.They also appeared to outnumber Russian fans by a thousand to one in Basel where they played their quarter-final and the tournament, not to mention the fan zones, became a little quieter when they finally returned home after Russia beat them 3-1.Croatian fans, Spaniards and Germans from just across the border also helped create an ambience that lifted the spirits and with Uefa reporting more than three million people visiting the fan zones, the number of arrests were insignificant.The one thing that Uefa could not control was the weather and a number of matches were played in heavy rain with thunder and lightning adding a dramatic backdrop.A torrential storm during the semi-final between Germany and Turkey in Basel on June 25 affected TV feeds with millions of fans around the world losing pictures of the dramatic closing stages of the game which Germany won 3-2.Uefa’s executive committee is likely to vote to expand the competition to 24 teams when it debates the issue in September, when it will also decide whether the next tournament in 2012 will be staged in Ukraine and Poland as planned, or be moved elsewhere because of myriad problems in Kiev and Warsaw.Nampa-Reuters