The fact that they helped to create one of the best European tournament matches ever will come as no comfort to the Dutch team, who lost their match against the Czech Republic 3-2. It was a game they looked like winning comfortably, as they were 2-0 up after just 19 minutes. But a brilliant performance by goalkeeper Cech prevented them scoring any more, and a few minutes after the Czechs had fought back to make it 2-2, a poor refereeing decision saw the Dutch go down to ten men. Heitinga, who had been booked in the first half, was adjudged to have brought down Pavel Nedved. He was shown a second yellow card, and had to go. Replays suggest that Nedved went down too easily. When the Czech Republic scored their third goal 2 minutes before the end of normal time, there wasn't enough time left for the Dutch to bring it back to 3-3. A draw was the very least they deserved from this encounter.

This was an exciting game from beginning to end. There were 35 shots on goal by the two teams, that's better than one every three minutes. The game was end-to-end, with lots of action, and some poor defending which was largely nullified by both goalkeepers who had outstanding games.

The Dutch team played far, far better than they did against Germany, yet still lost. It was hard to take. Ruud van Nistelrooy seemed not to be able to comprehend what had happened. To progress to the quarter finals, the Dutch team must now beat Latvia in the final game, and hope that Germany lose to the Czech Republic - which, on this performance, is not out of the question.

11:03:34 PM    

Well done Latvia! The team considered by most pundits to be the least likely to win Euro 2004 held the mighty Germany to a goalless draw, and in fact could even have won the game. It also means that Germany have yet to win a game in this tournament, and they won't be relishing the prospect of meeting the Czech Republic in the final group D encounter. There will be a lot of nerves in the German camp, but full marks to Latvia for a great performance and a great result.

8:04:34 PM