Fans flock to Basel for first knockout game

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By Paul Radford

VIENNA (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of German and Portuguese football fans poured into Basel on Thursday for the first quarter-final of the Euro 2008 tournament.

City authorities said they expected some 40,000 Germans and 10,000 Portuguese supporters for the Portugal v Germany match being played later on Thursday at the St Jakob Park stadium.

Fan parks and areas public screening areas in the Rhine city were filling up and officials said they expected an even bigger influx on Saturday when Netherlands play Russia, with some 100,000 Dutch supporters likely to arrive in the city.

The atmosphere was peaceful and festive with beer sales brisk among German fans in the city centre.

Portugal were starting the match as favourites with their free-scoring winger Cristiano Ronaldo on fine form.

The Portuguese have had more than a week to prepare for the game after qualifying for the last eight by winning their first two matches, enabling them to rest their key players in the third.

Germany, by contrast, laboured their way into the quarter-finals and have had only two full days to get over their hard-fought final group game against Austria in Vienna on Monday.

German coach Joachim Loew has been banished to the stands by UEFA after being sent off, along with Austrian coach Josef Hickersberger, for arguing during the Austria .....continued below

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He will not be allowed any contact with his players at the stadium before and during the Portugal game.

The quarter-finals continue on Friday in Vienna where Croatia play Turkey. After the Dutch-Russia match, the fourth and last quarter-final is in the Austrian capital where Spain play Italy on Sunday.

The final will be in Vienna on June 29.

SAD NEWS

There was sad news in the Dutch camp where defender Khalid Boulahrouz learnt that his wife had been taken to hospital with pregnancy complications and that his prematurely born daughter had subsequently died.

But Dutch coach Marco van Basten said Boulahrouz had decided to stay with the squad. "I understand it is very difficult for Khalid and we will all try to support him however we can," he said.

Italy had problems of a different sort when they lost central defender Andrea Barzagli for the rest of the tournament with a knee injury.

Captain and centre back Fabio Cannavaro had been ruled out of the tournament just before it started with ruptured ankle ligaments.

All the good news seemed to be among ticket touts who reported they were doing a roaring trade, ignoring UEFA rules on the resale of match tickets.

At least 50 touts were selling tickets openly in Basel’s main railway station and some told reporters they had not been challenged by the authorities.

Zurich police, however, said they had detained 38 fans in possession of stolen tickets at the start of Tuesday’s match between France and Italy.

(Additional reporting by Iain Rogers, Mark Ledsom, Theo Ruizenaar and Mark Meadows; Editing by Jon Bramley)