Today at Euro 2008: Beenhakker grants Boruc leave after birth of son
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Your support makes all the difference.*Poland The Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc was granted permission to leave Poland's training camp to see his new-born son in Warsaw. The 28-year-old left his country's training camp at Bad Waltersdorf the morning after the 1-1 draw against Austria, and he was scheduled to be back on the same evening. Boruc's wife Kasia gave birth to Alex on Wednesday while he was preparing for the following day's Group B match at Ernst-Happel Stadium. "Artur's wife gave birth to a son, a healthy boy, so I gave him permission to go back to Warsaw for a few hours," his coach Leo Beenhakker said. Boruc pulled off three saves early on against Austria and was only beaten in injury time when Ivica Vastic scored from the penalty spot. Boruc said: "I know I may have played okay in the first 20 or 30 minutes when Austria had us under pressure, but I was only doing my job and it doesn't matter that I played well. We win and lose as a team and we didn't win the game when we needed to."
Dutch seeing treble in Berne
More than 60,000 Netherlands fans – twice the early estimates – were expected in Berne for the Group C meeting with France last night and Tuesday's match against Romania, prompting officials to install a third giant screen for public viewing in the capital city's Kornhausplatz.
Klagenfurt stays peaceful
Authorities in Klagenfurt said up to 100,000 fans were in the city on Thursday, mainly from Croatia and Germany. The game had been considered a security risk but border checks stopped known troublemakers reaching Austria and hooligan spotters monitored fans in the town.
Player to watch: Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Spain's error-prone defenders have reason to worry. Sweden's 6ft 5in enigma looks to be in the mood. Born in Malmo 26 years ago to a Bosnian mother and Croatian father Ibrahimovic has never been a stereotype Swede and walked out of the squad in qualifying after being penalised for breaking a curfew. He did not score en route to the finals but struck a superb goal in Sweden's opening game – his first international goal for over two years. Has won five successive league titles with Ajax, Juventus (one of them later revoked because of the match-fixing scandal) and Internazionale. He returned from injury to score twice to clinch the latest title.
*OLOF MELLBERG (SWEDEN v Spain)
The 30-year-old ended a seven-year spell at Aston Villa last month after signing a pre-contract agreement with Juventus. The occasionally bearded defender joined Villa from Racing Santander in 2001, going on to make 263 appearances and score eight goals. Helped Swedes keep a clean sheet against Greece on Tuesday.
Quote of the day
"Croatia dismantled the German machine. We knew this generation was ready for the philosopher's stones. Confirmation came in Klagenfurt." - Croatian daily Vecernji List celebrates in cryptic fashion
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