EURO 2008 DIGEST

Other Euro 2008 stories in brief

No plan B for Euro 2012

UEFA INSIST they have no "plan B" in place to reallocate Euro 2012 if fresh reports of organisational disarray involving co-hosts Poland and Ukraine turn out to be true.

Ukrainian Football Federation vice-president Boris Voskresensky was quoted yesterday as saying the Taiwanese company responsible for renovating the Kiev Olympic stadium is "incapable" of finishing the job, before confessing Uefa could revoke the countries' staging rights if the situation does not improve.

The admission follows Uefa's expression of concern in January about the pace of progress.

Czechs hoping for third time luck

CZECH REPUBLIC have suffered from two previous European Championship rule changes and will be practising penalties this week to ensure it does not happen again.

They face Turkey on Sunday and because the teams are equal on points, goal difference and goals scored, a draw in normal time would mean activating the new rule of a penalty shootout to decide which of them earns a Euro 2008 quarter-final spot.

Having lost the Euro '96 final to Germany on the then newly introduced "golden goal" rule, and fallen at the Euro 2004 semi-final stage against Greece to a new "silver goal", the Czechs could be forgiven for disliking change.

Coach Karel Brueckner remained philosophical about the possibility of being cursed by yet another new rule. It is a coincidence, he told a news conference yesterday.

"You can't do anything about it. We will be working on them (penalties) in training but . . . first we need to work on the first part of the game . . . and try to win in normal time."

 Torres's reaction 'in the past'

FERNANDO TORRESS angry reaction after being substituted during Spain's 4-1 win over Russia will do nothing to undermine morale in the Spain camp, players said yesterday.

Spain coach Luis Aragones went to shake Torres's hand after taking him off early in the second half in Innsbruck on Tuesday, but the striker ignored him as he walked off.

"Why destroy everything we've done by worrying about a small detail," defender Joan Capdevila told a news conference. "It is past now and we have to look ahead. We need to look at positive things not the negative."