The group consisting of England, Germany, Romania and Portugal is certainly the one that will bring us a lot of interesting games. Those who have expected England and Germany to just walk through the group have been wrong, as the results of first two games in that group have shown us. Like in real life, there was a lot of black and white in the opening games, too. The absolute giant among the referees, the Italian Collina, was the best man of the game between Holland and the Czech Republic. A mistake by his colleague from Denmark Nielsen stopped Romania from winning against Germany.
Statistics sometimes say more than words.
Germany never lost a game in which Nielsen was the referee. The group in witch Spain and Yugoslavia were considered the top favourites brought some real surprises. Norway played its anti-game killing the rhythm of Spain and left the field as winner. The last game of the first round between Yugoslavia and Slovenia has begun with shameful whistles against national anthems. Yet, the players of both teams showed their respect applauding after the anthem of the opponent.