Group C was really tight right up until the final whistle. Two out of three teams - Denmark, Sweden and Italy - could progress. Italy had to win against Bulgaria, while Denmark and Sweden faced each other in a Scandinavian derby. The Italians being the Italians, there were dark mutterings about possible "gentlemens' agreement" between the two north European sides, which could both progress at Italy's expense if their score was level at 2-2 or better. Of course, any such agreement was quickly dismissed by both Scandinavian teams as preposterous, and rightly so. Their fans are friendly, and mixed freely both inside and outside the stadium, but only those ignorant of Scandinavia would have suggested a stich-up. I lived in Denmark for eight years, and there's nothing a Dane likes better than to get one over on the Swedes or the Norwegians.

Well, the game started with Denmark playing the better football, and they went in at half time 1-0 up from a Jon Dahl Tomasson goal. At the start of the second half, the referee gave a penalty to Sweden apparently adjudging that the Danish goalkeeper had brought down Henrik Larsson. Replays showed that Larsson had play acted - some might call it cheating - and should have been booked. But he took the penalty, and scored. Jon Dahl Tomasson again gained the lead for Denmark, and it looked like staying that way until the 88th minute when Mattias Jonson scored for Sweden after Sorensen in the Danish goal spilled the ball. So, the match ended with the scoreline that Italy had dreaded: 2-2.

Even more amazingly, Italy had gone behind to Bulgaria, and despite getting a goal back they could not score a second - until, that is, the 4th minute of injury time when they made it 2-1. But by then, it was 2-2 in the other match, and Italy go out on inferior goal difference. I wonder what tomorrow's Italian papers will make of that. One thing's for sure: any attempt to make out that the Denmark-Sweden result was anything other than chance will cause a huge row. I watched the match, and it was highly competitive and richly entertaining. If the Italians can't accept that, then they deserve to be eliminated. Nobody has a divine right to win or lose football matches.

11:05:15 PM