Spain are trying to keep the lid on the euphoria after their breaking their quarter-final curse with a penalty shoot-out victory over world champions Italy.

Because of the vagaries of the draw for Euro 2008, “la furia roja” now face Russia in the semi-finals, the team they beat 4-1 in their opening match of the tournament.

On paper, Spain have everything running in their favour. Psychologically they have the upper hand given the result of the group game, team morale has been boosted because of the win over Italy, they have no injuries and the first choice players remain fresh after being rested in the final group game against Greece.

Spain triumphed in both their previous semi-final appearances in the competition, over Hungary in 1964 and Denmark in 1984.

But with Guus Hiddink in the opposition dug-out, Spain would do well to be on their guard. The Dutchman was, of course, the coach of South Korea when they knocked Spain out of the 2002 World Cup. He also took an unrated Australia to the last 16 of the 2006 World Cup where they were desperately unlucky not to derail Italy and led the Netherlands to the semis of France 1998.

Hiddink is an expert on Spanish football having coached Real Madrid, Valencia and Betis and he is sure to have a few aces up his sleeve ready for Thursday’s showdown. With Andrei Arshavin in sparkling form following his return from his ban and Roman Pavlyuchenko on form up front, Russia could go all the way.

It has been a good year for Russian sport. Zenit won the UEFA Cup, CSKA Moscow won the Euroleague basketball. Could they make it a hat-trick with Euro 2008?

PHOTO: Guus Hiddink celebrates after Russia’s victory over the Netherlands in Basel, June 21, 2008. REUTERS/Michael Kooren

As a reporter at Euro 2008 you’re only as good as the team or teams you are covering and after Sweden and Romania’s elimination from the finals, I was the first of the Reuters team to pack my bags and go home.

It was disappointment tinged with relief as the call came after Sweden’s defeat by Russia. Exhaustion was beginning to catch up with me, so my own bed in Brussels was a very attractive offer.

So what did I think about Euro 2008? It was very enjoyable. I met lots of people, learned a lot and crated many memories … oh yes, the soccer was ok too.

Two of the most interesting, but bizarre, lessons I learned were:

Firstly, if you leave the electronic key to your hotel bedroom next to your mobile phone in your pocket, it won’t work when you get back to your hotel at 1am and you have to wake up the owner to let you in.

The second thing is that first class and business class mean two very different things in Austria and Switzerland when you travel.

Let me explain.

On a train trip to Innsbruck to cover Sweden’s defeat to Spain, I was sat next to Dimitris Varotis and his 18 year-old son Dante. As you might expect by their names, they are Greek, or American of Greek extraction to be exact. They had both travelled from Pittsburgh to watch Euro 2008, taking in Spain and Portugal’s games. “The Greeks are boring and have had their day,” Dante, who prefers soccer to baseball and American football, told me. Soccer truly is a global game.

My insight into Austrian and Swiss levels of travel came on the return journey. Amid a packed first class section, a Japanese photographer, who had sat beside myself and my new U.S. friends on the outward journey, recognised me an invited me to sit with him and four of his photographer friends. in a very comfortable, Orient Express style booth.

But then a burly train inspector came up and told us to get out. “Business class is not first class in our country,” he snapped.

The five photographers looked ashamed, angry and upset all at once. The inspector then demanded 50 euros from them to stay put. They said they could not afford that. I intervened and in my limited German pointed to the small print on our accreditation, which was in English and which I had for some reason read beforehand, that stated we were in fact allowed to travel in the compartment once it was not an overnight sleeper.

The inspector quickly moved on with his tail between his legs and I became an instant hero in Japan.

Darren Ennis, Brussels

PHOTO: A Sweden fan reacts after defeat by Russia in Innsbruck, June 18, 2008. REUTERS/Michael Dalder

As someone once famously said, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

They were not talking about the finals of the European Championship at the time, but the phrase certianly applies. UEFA, under pressure it must be said from some of their 53 member associations, are weighing up the pros and cons of expanding the Euros to either a 20 or 24-team tournament.

I think that would be totally wrong.

The current 16-team championship is the perfect size and the perfect format. And 31 matches in three weeks should be enough to satiate the appetite of even the most desperate of fans.

As we all know, the competition format is simple and logical and because just the top two advance teams have to come and attack.

Add another four or eight teams and we get into the complicated nonsense we had to endure in the 24-team World Cups from 1982 to 1994 because it’s not easy to reduce 24 teams to a 16-team knockout stage. Defensive, cagey football, from teams who shouldn’t be in the finals in the first place will damage the event.

UEFA must make a decision on whether to expand the tournament or not by the end of the year because they have to invite bids from countries interested in staging the 2016 finals and prospective bidders need to know if they will be hosting a 16, 20 or 24 team event.

If it is 24 that would mean nearly half of UEFA’s members would be playing in the finals.

But why stop there? Why not get all 53 teams to play against each other in a competition that takes about two years to complete and comprises about 300 matches.

Oh sorry, that’s what the qualifiers for the finals are for.

PHOTO: Miroslav Klose outjumps Cristiano Ronaldo to score in Basel, June 19, 2008. REUTERS/Max Rossi

Cristiano Ronaldo told Real Madrid what they wanted to hear when he reacted to Portugal’s Euro 2008 exit with a clear indication of what he has in mind for his future.

Ronaldo was careful never to mention the words Real or Madrid when he spoke to reporters in Spanish at the end of the match in Basel but his words still did not leave much to the imagination.

“Everyone knows what I want,” Ronaldo said. “But in the next two or three days you’ll have something new. (I made this decision) some time ago, before this competition. I didn’t want to say anything because we were in competition and these are important decisions.”

Asked about the likelihood of a move, he added: “The possibilities are big but it doesn’t depend on me and because of that I don’t want to talk about it.”

His comments came on the same day a senior Real Madrid figure called on Ronaldo to come out in public and give them an opportunity to start negotiations with the Premier League champions.

If Ronaldo really does want to leave, United may have to accept that the canniest move now would be to get the best deal possible from Real.

The 23-year-old winger’s ineffective performance in Portugal’s 3-2 defeat by Germany might just persuade Alex Ferguson that he is by no means irreplaceable and that 100 million euros or so might give him the chance to build an even better team.

Do you think United should let him go and pocket the cash? And if so, who could they sign to fill Ronaldo’s boots? Barcelona are trying to offload Ronaldinho, Deco and Samuel Eto’o and they could comfortably afford all three with that sort of money.

What do you reckon?

PHOTO: Cristiano Ronaldo reacts to Portugal’s 3-2 defeat by Germany at Euro 2008, Basel, June 19, 2008. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

UEFA’s decision to banish mild-mannered coach Joachim Loew from the touchline for Thursday’s quarter-final against Portugal is being put down to anti-German feeling by a lot of people here, a suspicion fanned by the angry response from German FA bosses.

It’s not the first time Germany have been hit with what neutral observers (I’d like to consider myself one of those) might view as a rather harsh penalty just before a critical match.

It recalled the suspension of Torsten Frings on the eve of the World Cup semi-final against Italy two years ago, for his relatively minor role in a post-match scuffle with
Argentina players. Germans also remember that they had to do without Michael Ballack for the World Cup final in 2002, although that was a more straightforward decision.

Is it a general dislike of Germans? Are there influential people that don’t want to see the country that has won three European Championships (1972, 1980 and 1996) and three World Cups (1954, 1974, 1990) succeed again?

Bierhoff was quick to dismiss such an idea at an eve-of-match press conference in Basel but he was annoyed in the extreme.

“These are isolated cases,” he said. “I don’t think there is a special story going on here. But in this case perhaps a fine would have been sufficient.”

Loew said after the incident that he had just been coming to the aid of Josef Hickersberger, who was also sent off, in urging the fourth official to allow the Austrian freedom to roam in the technical area at pitchside. Loew has no history of criticising referees and he quickly shook hands with Hickersberger as they walked together towards the stands. Loew’s arguments thus seem entirely plausible.

To stunned Germans, it feels like an innocent bystander got whacked around for trying to help. It seems like Loew first got arrested and has now been convicted for being a Good Samaritan.

Erik Kirschbaum, Berlin

PHOTO: Joachim Loew carries a goal during a training session in Tenero, June 17, 2008. REUTERS/Alex Grimm

Germany’s general election may still be a year away, but the challengers are already battling it out for the big political prize on unlikely territory — at Euro 2008.

Both conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Social Democratic rival, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, are going to great lengths to associate themselves with the German team.

Steinmeier surprised journalists during a trip to China last week when he converted an ordinary fuel stop in Helsinki into a soccer-watching party.

Eager to catch Germany’s match against Croatia, Steinmeier had his China-bound plane roll to the door of a VIP lounge at Helsinki Airport immediately upon landing just before half-time, where a giant TV screen was set up for the ambitious foreign minister, his accompanying aides and journalists.

Cringing when Croatia went ahead 2-0, Steinmeier jumped up from his front row seat and headed for the door, grumbling: ‘The fuel tank must be full by now.’ But it turned out he was only joking. He sat back down in time to see Germany pull one back before ultimately losing 2-1.

Just days later, Merkel, Steinmeier (wearing a tacky tie with the red, black and gold German colours) and four other equally ambitious ministers from Merkel’s cabinet flew to Vienna to watch Germany’s next match against Austria. 

Merkel clearly enjoyed the game — as much as being in the spotlight. German TV kept cutting away to Merkel, chatting first with suspended midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger and then with coach Joachim Loew, banished to the stands by the referee.

“Merkel knows her stuff,” Schweinsteiger was quoted as as saying by Bild, a paper that once hailed Merkel’s ability to explain the off-side rule. “She pointed out that Philipp Lahm kept getting free on the left.”

Merkel’s predecessors Gerhard Schroeder, a gritty striker who played semi-pro football as a young law student, and Helmut Kohl were never shy about trying to attach themselves to the national team that has won three World Cups and three European Championships — knowing how priceless images of them posing with successful teams are.

With the 2009 election looming it seems Merkel and Steinmeier are pulling out all the stops. But you have to wonder how close they’ll want to be if Germany get knocked out in the quarter-finals by Portugal?

PHOTO: Germany’s coach Joachim Loew (C) speaks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during the Group B Euro 2008 match against Austria in Vienna, June 16, 2008. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

From a tiny second division Portuguese stadium to the luxurious surroundings and facilities of an Alpine sports centre, Greece are feeling like true defending champions at the Euro 2008.

The atmosphere, however, is not nearly as happy as it was in Portugal.

Four years ago when Greece settled in Vila do Conde, a sleepy seaside town in the estuary of the Ave river north of Porto, noone, including myself would have ever dreamt that a few weeks later coach Otto Rehhagel’s men would be crowned champions of Europe.

The surroundings certainly did not point to that.

The early morning training sessions were attended by only a handful of reporters, security was almost non-existent and there was seemingly no pressure on the players.

We would park our cars metres from the stadium entrance, wait there for the team bus to arrive, chat to the players as they got off and as they signed autographs with the few security guards, and then we would make our way to the concrete stands to watch the training.

Afterwards, in a makeshift press centre consisting of a table and a few chairs for the coach and some players and a single light bulb, the press conference would be under way, lasting essentially as long as we would like. All 7 or 10 of us.

Then, sometimes we continued talking to the players on their way to the bus. They were just glad to be at the tournament and were enjoying themselves.

With no sockets in the stadium to plug in my computer, I would always had to walk out to the parking lot and file from my rented car.

As the tournament progressed and more media turned their attention to Greece, all of us who had been with the team from the start were given unofficial privileged access with information leaked out only to Greek reporters or myself, who by that time was having dinner almost nightly with the Greek FA people.

After Greece beat Portugal in the Euro 2004 final, captain Theo Zagorakis even brought out the Henry Delauney trophy just for us to take pictures with, hold it, even kiss it if we liked. We felt we had also played in the final — and won. That was how close we had gotten to the team.

This time round, the players enjoy perfect, yet isolated, training conditions in a five-star environment near the picturesque village of Seekirchen, north of Salzburg, with a large modern media centre for dozens of reporters who watch the team’s training daily. Security, refreshments, snacks and sponsors’ gifts abound for those who want them.

But for all that, the atmosphere in the press centre is far from jubilant, especially after Greece’s defeat in their opening game. Players and coaching staff have clammed up and news nowadays trickles out only through official channels.

Maybe a win against Russia could help lift the spirits of the team and give us a bit of that unadulterated fun we got used to four years ago.   

Karolos Grohmann, with the Greek team in Seekirchen

PHOTO: Greece’s head coach Otto Rehhagel checks his watch during a practice session in Seekirchen, June 4, 2008. REUTERS/Calle Toernstroem

To lose one tournament co-host seems unfortunate, but to lose two? Well, it seems it probably wouldn’t matter at all.

Switzerland have already bowed out and Austria are only just clinging on after a stoppage time penalty equaliser against Poland on Thursday. But the Euro 2008 organisers are insisting that no hosts equals no problem.

As soon as the Swiss made their early exit, Switzerland’s sports minister, national team coach Koebi Kuhn and UEFA spokesman William Gaillard were quick to weigh in with assurances that the party would continue even if Austria follow Switzerland’s disappointing example.

Some may have been surprised to hear that the party had even begun. A mixed bag of weather, including the deluge that nearly drowned those of us ‘fortunate’ enough to have front row seats for the Switzerland v Turkey game, and the two local teams’ early results had already put a sometimes literal dampener on the first few days.

And while the tournament’s organisers clearly have an interest in saying everything is fine, some local businesses seem less convinced. Fanzones away from Switzerland’s main host cities, catering specifically to local supporters, have already reported some disappointing attendance figures, citing weather and the Swiss results as the main factor. Even some of the host city fan zones have reportedly been laying off some of their temporary workers due to lower than expected turnover.

In cities where visiting fans have arrived en masse there is certainly no lack of atmosphere. My own home city, the Swiss capital Berne, has been joyfully swamped by a fantastic orange-wigged army of Dutch supporters. The nearest thing we usually get to that is the city’s annual early morning festival in celebration of the onion - but that probably belongs in another blog….

But the point is that surely local interest is a must in any of the cities not blessed (if that’s the right word?) by hordes of drunken Dutch fans. UEFA might be reckoning on a cumulative television audience of something like eight zillion people, but for the fanzone concept to remain a success, the fans who actually bother to visit the tournament even without tickets will want to know that there’s enough local atmosphere to make it worth their considerable efforts. So do you think Switzerland can pick themselves up from the early exit that few of the fans here expected, even if the rest of Europe did?

Personally, I think if the football stays as entertaining as it has been so far, and the weather continues to improve, the Swiss will be able to prove that they are not as allergic to partying as national stereotype might suggest.

Ironically, though, the biggest threat to the mood in Switzerland could be if their Austrian neighbours do manage somehow to beat Germany and end up with the unexpected bragging rights over the supposedly superior Swiss. Maybe losing two co-hosts isn’t the worst scenario after all…

PHOTO: Switzerland fans react after defeat to Turkey at St Jakob Park in Basel, June 11, 2008. REUTERS/Jerry Lampen

Sat with my anorak on in Vienna in the Reuters Euro 2008 office I spent much of the week in the build-up to Euro 2008 buried in weird and wonderful statistics … and a lot of them point to Germany winning.

For example, the last time the Germans played on the second day of a European Championship final tournament was at Euro 96 in England. They beat the Czech Republic 2-0 at Old Trafford, Manchester and went on to lift the trophy for the third time.

Here, at Euro 2008, they play Poland on the second day of the tournament.

During qualifying for the Euro 96 finals Germany won eight matches, losing just one in a group featuring Wales.

In qualifying for the Euro 2008 finals Germany won eight matches and lost one in a group featuring? You guessed it, Wales.

And also Germany/West Germany won a European Championship eight years after Belgium had hosted the competition, which they last did in 2000 - eight years ago.

Throw in the fact they scored the most goals in qualifying, are the most experienced country (in their 10th European Championship), and have an in-form global star in Michael Ballack, I think the other teams might as well just go home now. What do you think?

PHOTO: Michael Ballack pauses during a news conference in Tenero June 6, 2008. (EURO 2008 Preview) REUTERS/Alex Grimm

Football fans all love to hate referees … but getting close up and personal with them would change a lot of people’s opinions.

Meeting the refs and other match officials for Euro 2008 at their media open day at Regensdorf just north of Zurich was an illuminating experience.

UEFA first opened the doors to the men they dub “the 17th team” at Euro 2004 and while you go along expecting to be yellow-carded if you so much as trip over a paving stone, you quickly realise that referees are often unfairly maligned by managers, media and public alike.

The first thing you notice is how young and fit they are. The retirement age for elite referees is now 45 and most of them look a lot younger than that. In fact, many look like they could actually be playing.

What also comes across in talking to them is that they seem to be genuine football fans who love the game as much as anyone.

Roberto Rosetti of Italy, the ref for the opening match between Switzerland and the Czech Republic, is widely regarded not just as the natural successor to Pierluigi Collina as the best Italian referee, but probably the best referee in Europe and possibly the world.

“Lets not talk about that,” he joked, “I won’t be regarded as anything if I have a bad match.”

Howard Webb of England has taken five years out from his job as a police officer to concentrate on his refereeing duties.

“I know its a cliche, but really, I just take each match as it comes,” he smiled. “You’re only as good as your last match.”

Konrad Plautz of Austria said, “Of course we make mistakes. We’re only human. All I hope is that none of the hundreds of cameras in the stadium catches it. Some hope!”

Lubos Michel, who has just refereed the Champions League final between Manchester United and Chelsea, said: “We know we are in a lose-lose situation. If we have a good game no-one notices us, but everyone notices us if we have a bad one. You can’t win.”

The one thing they do have going for them is an incredible sense of unity and teamwork. They reminded me of the contestants on a reality TV show — all mates together, but some will go home early after the group stage and only one can ref the final.

With England not here, is Webb a contender for the big honour?

“I hardly think so, but not having your national team here does open up your options,” he said. “Also this is my first major tournament, there are a lot more experienced guys here who deserve it more.”

What a neutral answer. Typical of a referee.

Mike Collett

PHOTO: Referees (1st row L to R) Konrad Plautz from Austria, Frank de Bleeckere from Belgium, Howard Webb from England, Manuel Enrique Mejuto Gonzalez from Spain, Herbert Fandel from Germany, Kyros Vassaras from Greece

(2nd row L to R) Roberto Rosetti from Italy, Pieter Vink from the Netherlands, Tom Henning Ovrebo from Norway, Lubos Michel from Slovakia, Peter Frojdfeldt from Sweden and Massimo Busacca from Switzerland

REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

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