Off the pitch
Rooney's girl lifts his spirits
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| England midfielder Frank Lampard (C) raises his arms after scoring against France, 13 June 2004 during their opening match at the European Nations football championships at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon. France and England are competing in Group B with Croatia and Switzerland. |
England's teenaged prodigy Wayne Rooney was consoled by his girlfriend after the 2-1 defeat to France, The Sun tabloid reported on Tuesday.
Under the headline In Me Bed Son, the paper said Colleen McLoughlin, who like Rooney is 18, was among the wives and girlfriends allowed to spend the night with their partners on Monday night, 24 hours after the last-minute defeat to France.
It is the first tournament in recent years that wives and girlfriends have been allowed to stay with the England squad.
Sports paper benefits in France
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| The French team celebrate after beating England 2-1 in their opening Euro2004 football match, 13 June 2004 at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon. France and England are competing in Group B with Croatia and Switzerland. |
France's dramatic win over their old enemy England is expected to help French sports paper L'Equipe to double their normal daily sale.
L'Equipe printed 920,000 copies on Monday, the day after the match, and are hoping to sell at least 700,000, the paper's head of sales Michel Delbort said. L'Equipe's average daily sale last year was 326,000 copies.
"These sales are due to the way the match unfolded and the fact that it was against a team like England." 1.58 million copies were sold when they won the 1998 World Cup on home soil.
Croatian PM pessimistic for France
It's always good to know that your country is behind you when you are about to face the European champions - so what will Croatia's players make of their prime minister's view that they are facing "mission impossible" against France on Thursday?
"If we could find a Croatian Zinedine Zidane I'd say we would win ... but since we don't have a Zizou I'm not that optimistic," said Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.
"In football everything is possible, even a mission impossible like the Croatia-France match," he added.
Rehhagel invited by President
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| Greece's coach, German Otto Rehhagel (L) gives advices to his players during a training session at the Rio Ave stadium, in Vila Do Conde, 10 June 2004, two days before the opening ceremony of the European Nations Championship. Greece will face Portugal in the Euro 2004 opening game. |
Greece are geared up to inflict another blow against Spain on Wednesday after their shock win over Portugal in the Euro opener.
"The prime minister rang to congratulate us and then the president called to invite me for a big cup of coffee when I get back."
"I keep telling the players I'm not the one who scores the goals - I'm there to advise them and help them.
"The only thing I can say is that I'm experienced."
"I've been very impressed by the attitude of the Portuguese people - even though they lost to us when they see us they salute us and say bravo. I respect them enormously".
Portuguese police protest
Some 500 off-duty police blew whistles and marched through the streets of the Portuguese capital on Monday to protest poor working conditions in a demonstration timed to coincide with the European football finals.
The protest involved officers from various services including immigration inspectors and prison guards who are pushing for higher wages, better resources and the establishment of a system of automatic promotions as exists for other government workers.
President breathes fire at Dragon
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| View taken 02 December 2003 of the Estadio Dragao in Porto. The stadium will host up to 52.000 football fans during three games of the first round of the Euro 2004, Portugal vs Greece 12 June, Italy vs Sweden 18 June and Germany vs Netherlands 15 June, a quarter final 27 June and a semi-final match 01 July. The continental competition will be hosted by Portugal from 12 June to 05 July 2004. AFP PHOTO / FRANCOIS XAVIER MARIT |
The president of the Portuguese Football Federation Gilberto Madail flew into a rage ahead of the Portugal-Greece Euro opener when he spotted several uninvited government ministers suddenly monopolising the VIP seats at the Dragon stadium of Saturday.
So angry was he that he threatened to leave the stadium, only calming down when he himself was ushered into an armchair. His assistant Martin Kallon fared less well, and watched the match in a good old fashioned standing position.
Win Bonuses
Denmark's players have been offered 309,000 euros each if they can emulate the success of the 1992 vintage by winning Euro 2004. The entire squad has already been handed 50,000 euros just for showing up and a system of points and win bonuses grows the further they go in the tournament.
The Greeks are in a similar boat and will share a 2 million euros bonus just for making it into the last-8.
Football bad for the health
The president of the Portuguese Football Federation, Gilberto Madail, is so nervous about Portugal's chances he simply cannot bear to watch the next match against Russia on Wednesday.
"I became really nervous, I mean really, really nervous, at the match against Greece," he told sports daily Record.
"Sometimes you have to think a little bit about your health and I am afraid of falling ill."
He added though that he was confident Portugal would reach the next stage of the finals.
Swedish media hail dream start
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| Sweden's striker Henrik Larsson celebrates after scoring a goal, 14 June 2004 at the Jose De Alvalade stadium in Lisbon during their opening football match at the European Nations championship. Sweden and Bulgaria are competing in Group C with Italy and Denmark. AFP PHOTO Dimitar DILKOFF |
Sweden's 5-0 hammering of Bulgaria in their Group C opener was a dream come true, the Swedish media rejoiced on Tuesday as it hailed two-goal Henrik Larsson's triumphant return to the international stage.
"The dream that dreams dream", declared one headline
"Sweden-Bulgaria 5-0. Please, let it be true," wrote tabloid Aftonbladet.
"This is happiness", Expressen said in a banner headline above a picture of the squad taking a bow in front of thousands of blue-and-yellow clad Swedish fans.
Mounted police charge England fans
Eleven English soccer fans have been detained in Portugal after clashes with the police, the British Foreign Office said Tuesday.
About 200 fans clashed overnight with Portuguese riot police in the holiday town of Albufeira, where mounted police charged the crowd after being pelted with bottles and chairs.
Officers had moved into an area of bars in the town after fans spilled into the street. Police cordoned off several streets and patrolled the area with dogs.