Leipzig, Nürnberg, Schwabach
Round of 16 Franken Stadion Nürnberg 21.00
Portugal v Holland
Normally at Championships during quiet moments in games, chants for the home nation can be heard, this has not been evident at this tournament to date, but tonight things changed. The Germans were united with Portugal. Another chant I had picked up over the last two weeks was “Ohne Holland fahrin wir nach Berlin”. (Without Holland we’re going to Berlin). By chanting this and joining in with Port-ooh-gal, they at times drowned out the Dutch support which had been so busy earlier in the day painting Nürnberg orange. The chants got louder and louder as the Germans realised the more they chanted the more frustrated the Dutch team were getting. I saw afterwards that Sepp Blatter has various ideas over the issuing of cards, including awarding them to referees. This game was a classic, with both teams trying to do everything to win, unfortunately the very limits to which they are supposed to play were pushed all the way and if the referee had spotted all the infringements we could have ended up with the game abandoned, due to the number of players that could have been sent off.
Football travels with Ross 