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Greece seeks to win Germany's respect at Euro 2012

GDANSK, Poland (AP) ? Now for the really important business between Greece and Germany: Soccer.

On Friday, thousands of fans from the two nations at opposite ends of the eurozone financial crisis converged on neutral Polish turf for a European Championship quarterfinal match.

For Greece fans, Friday's clash in Gdansk inevitably mixes sports and politics, Euro 2012 and the euro currency. They seek respect for their country after its humiliating economic collapse ? and the German government's role in imposing strict austerity measures as a condition of Greece getting ?240 billion ($300 billion) in bailout pledges.

"It's not good that sports and politics are together, but today we have no other choice," Greece fan Michalis Kalotrapesis said, wearing a white national team shirt and tracksuit top. "We are playing for our country and for our image in Europe and all over the world."

Kalotrapesis, and three Greek friends who now live in Germany, drove through the night to support their native nation here. Their pride in performing what they see as a patriotic duty fits into Greece's favored national narrative: In soccer as in finance, Germany is the traditional power and Greece the spirited underdog.

"We are a little bit crazy, but it's the Greek mentality," said Nikos Barzas, pointing out the bloodshot eyes of the group's designated driver, Georgios Kotiniotis. They left Gifhorn, Germany, at midnight with 750 kilometers (about 465 miles) of roads ahead of them.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will attend the match after morning economic meetings in Italy that were brought forward to help fulfill her role as the supposed lucky charm of the national team.

Barzas is glad she is coming ? to further spur the team and 5,000 Greece fans expected to attend the match.

"(The players will) fight a little bit more because (they want) to beat Angela Merkel. (It would be) a little bit of a small kick in Germany's (backside)," he said.

About 15,000 Germans were expected to go to the match, according to the Football Supporters Europe group. Many of the Germans arrived at Gdansk's main train station, where the scalpers' asking price was ?200 (about $250) for a ticket with a face value of ?75 ($95). There didn't appear to be any Greek fans in the market for them.

Cafes in the narrow cobbled street were occupied by either camp of genial beer-drinking fans. As the street filled up and drinks flowed, a large German flag had claimed the iron fence surrounding the ornate Neptune's fountain. Nearby, Greek fans waving an even larger flag occupied the steps leading up the main town hall. On the Motlawa river bank, fans stopped to get their faces painted in team colors, with accordions being played in the background.

Confident German fans could plan ahead of Euro 2012 for a likely quarterfinal in Gdansk. Fans from the Greek Diaspora knew only last Saturday where to head after an upset win over Russia.

"I was actually happy for them (the Greeks) that they finally had something to celebrate," said Stefan Leidig, a Germany fan from Koblenz. "Besides, I hope that they will manage to get out of the crisis at one point."

Two days after being sworn into office, the prime minister of Greece's new conservative-led coalition government is staying at home to work.

Antonis Samaras, a Harvard-educated former finance minister, is better employed stabilizing the country after a tense election last weekend than cheerleading at a soccer match, fan Thomas Nikolopulos said.

"I'm glad they are at home," said Nikolopulos, who arrived on a morning flight from London.

Before Samaras met with lawmakers in Athens on Friday afternoon, he could read headlines fueling national wishes to repel German policy on the field: "Bankrupt Them!" read Greek paper SportDay, as Derby News repeated the Spartan motto "Come and Get it."

In Germany, the best-selling daily Bild led with: "Bye bye Greece; we can't rescue you today."

Nikolopulos, who is originally from Athens, said the feeling back home is that "Germany has put them in the corner" over the euro currency crisis.

"This is Greece's opportunity to stand up and try to go back to being historical wonders," he said, with a blue-and-white striped national flag draped across his shoulders.

Greece fans takes faith in their team's surprise run to be Euro 2004 champion, founded on the same solid defense and dogged resistance shown by the current team in Poland. For three-time European champion Germany, the match seems more routine ? aiming for its fourth straight semifinal at each World Cup and Euro since Greece's golden year.

"For me, it's a normal football match," said German fan Klaus Lehmkuhl, a technical consultant from Muenster. "I don't think the politics is important for the German team."

Still, some off-field tensions are expected when the German national anthem is played minutes before kickoff. And if images of Merkel sitting next to UEFA President Michel Platini in the VIP seats are shown on the stadium giant screens?

"There will be massive boos. I can't see there not being some," said Yiannis Televantibes, a real estate agent from London. "But there's no problem between the fans."

In Berlin, thousands of soccer fans waving German flags flooded the area in front of the landmark Brandenburg Gate. Organizers of the public viewing event said they expected around 400,000 to turn out to watch the match on large screens.

Earlier, a German deputy government spokesman was peppered with questions about the match and asked whether Merkel would feel the need to tone down any goal celebrations, because of the eurozone crisis.

"I think it depends a bit on how the game goes, but I think you will see that she is glad if there's a goal on the right side," Georg Streiter said.

Streiter also shrugged off a question as to whether Merkel would consider herself partly responsible if German loses.

"I think you would be loading up the chancellor, who already has plenty of packages to carry, with an unjustified package," he said. "She's a spectator."

___

Associated Press writers David Rising and Juergen Baetz in Berlin, and Menelaos Hadjicostis in Athens, Greece, contributed to this report.

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Samsung Galaxy S III (Sprint)

The new flagship?smartphone?from the world's number-one mobile phone company, Samsung's Galaxy S III ($199.99 with contract) is literally a huge achievement. If you love big phones with lots of options, the GS3 will deliver state-of-the-art performance with bonus sharing and media features that you're likely to continue discovering a year from now. Sprint subscribers now have two solid choices: The Galaxy S III ties with the HTC EVO 4G LTE ($199, 4 stars) as our Editors' Choice for touch-screen smartphones on Sprint.

Editors' Note: The Samsung Galaxy S III models on all four major carriers are extremely similar, so we're sharing a lot of material between our various reviews. That said, we're testing each device separately, so read the review for your carrier of choice.

Physical Design
All of the new Galaxy S III models look the same, except for the carrier logo on the back panel. Each is available in dark blue or white (AT&T also has a red option coming this summer), and they're some of the biggest phones we've ever handled. At 5.4 by 2.8 by 0.34 inches (HWD) and 4.7 ounces, the GS3 is slightly bigger than the already-large HTC One X ($199, 4.5 stars), although it's still noticeably smaller and lighter than the Samsung Galaxy Note phone/tablet hybrid ($299, 3 stars). ?That said, this is not a phone for folks with small hands.

I'm not a fan of the huge?phone. But I've given up on panning them because every time I suggest these handsets are too big, I get pummeled by comments from people who adore them. Huge phones are the thing. I accept it.

The all-plastic body feels a little less high-end than the exotic materials of the HTC One series, but the phone is solidly built, and light despite its size. The front of the phone is dominated by the 4.8-inch, 1280-by-720-pixel Super AMOLED HD screen. Yes, it's PenTile, which can sometimes look slightly pixelated. But, no, you probably won't notice. Below the screen, there's a physical Home button, as well as light-up Back and Multitasking buttons that start out invisible, so you have to memorize where they are or change a setting to keep them illuminated. The 8-megapixel camera is on the back panel, which, thanks to its reflective finish, doubles as a pocket mirror.?

The default Automatic Brightness setting makes the screen too dim. Kill it and pump up the brightness and it's fine, even outdoors. It's not as bright as the One X's Super LCD 2 display, but it's fine.

Unlike the competing HTC One X, the S III has a removable 2100mAh battery. Taking off the back cover also reveals the microSD card slot, which supports cards up to 64GB.

Call Quality and Internet
Are you willing for Sprint to pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today? The EVO 4G LTE promises spectacular call quality with HD Voice?sometime in 2013, once Sprint gets the network running. But the GS3 lets you tweak your call quality now.

Default call quality is good. Volume is on the high end of average, with no distortion from loud inputs. The speakerphone isn't quite loud enough to use outdoors, but it's fine for the car or a boardroom. The microphone does a good job of cancelling background noise. Bluetooth headsets work fine with Samsung's S-Voice voice dialing system.

But as with so many things here, call quality gets richer if you burrow down into the GS3's menus. A Volume Boost button throws the phone into a super-loud, quasi-speakerphone mode for noisy areas, but that's just the start. Deep within the settings, there's an option to set custom call EQ. The phone plays you a sequence of quiet high and low tones and you tell it which ones you can hear, and then it EQ's calls accordingly. This is pretty radical stuff. I prefer my calls sharp, with more high-end, and the GS3 delivers.

On data though, the Sprint GS3 is crippled. All new Sprint phones are. Although the phones support speedy LTE, Sprint has steadfastly refused to give us a rollout timetable for its new LTE network, leaving its high-end smartphones on the slowest 3G network in America. We tested Sprint LTE, and it's competitive with AT&T and Verizon, but none of this matters a whit if Sprint won't tell us when anyone is getting it.?

This is why Sprint's Galaxy S III is getting a slightly lower rating than the other major carrier models. Sprint needs to get its act together. We will not give a Sprint phone a 4.5-star rating until the carrier gives its subscribers more information about LTE coverage.

You'll have better luck getting your Internet via Wi-Fi on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC are also onboard, and Google Wallet is preloaded.

Our battery test didn't complete because we ran out of time. But that's good; we just about ran down the battery with an 8 hour, 35 minute call. This phone has solid battery life, and considering the battery is removable, you can carry a spare. That's something you can't do with the EVO 4G LTE.

Software and Performance
The Galaxy S III runs Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" with a whole lot of exclusive Samsung extensions. Performance was excellent in my tests. The Qualcomm S4 chip running at 1.5GHz is the fastest one we've seen in smartphones so far, and it's able to take on any app challenge you throw at it, including games on the HD screen. Our benchmark tests proved this, although they were within the margin of error when compared with the One X. Both phones are very fast.

Exclusive new features include S-Beam, the ability to transfer files by tapping two phones together and using a combination of NFC and Wi-Fi Direct; S-Voice, Samsung's answer to Apple's Siri; TecTiles, NFC-enabled accessory tags that can change the settings on your phone, and lots of sharing and tagging options in the camera, such as the ability to automatically tag your friends' faces, and the ability for multiple GS3s within a few feet of each other to automatically share all of their photos.

Many of these features work well, but they're almost all buried. The interface is something of a scavenger hunt. Take Smart Stay, a neat new feature which detects your face and keeps the screen from going black while you're looking at it. I love it! But it's not on by default, and the only way to turn it on is by going to the Display area under Settings. S-Beam is similarly buried, under the Wireless menu.

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Researchers tune the strain in graphene drumheads to create quantum dots

ScienceDaily (June 21, 2012) ? Tightening or relaxing the tension on a drumhead will change the way the drum sounds. The same goes for drumheads made from graphene, only instead of changing the sound, stretching graphene has a profound effect on the material's electrical properties. Researchers working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland have shown that subjecting graphene to mechanical strain can mimic the effects of magnetic fields and create a quantum dot, an exotic type of semiconductor with a wide range of potential uses in electronic devices.

The results were reported in the June 22, 2012, issue of Science.

Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice. Able to conduct electricity with little resistance at room temperature, graphene is a prime candidate for applications ranging from flexible displays to high-speed transistors.

However, the same lack of electrical resistance that makes graphene attractive for some uses also makes it ill-suited for digital computing applications. Graphene conducts electricity so well because it doesn't have a band gap -- an energetic threshold beneath which the material won't conduct electricity. This means that graphene can't be turned "off," and computers need "on" and "off" signals to transmit and process information.

Because substrates slow the speed of electrons moving through graphene, Nikolai Klimov, a University of Maryland postdoctoral researcher working at NIST, suspended the graphene over shallow holes in a substrate of silicon dioxide -- essentially making a set of graphene drumheads. To measure the graphene's properties, the team used a unique scanning probe microscope designed and built at NIST.

When they began to probe the drumheads, they found that the graphene rose up to meet the tip of the microscope -- a result of the van der Waals force, a weak electrical force that creates attraction between objects that are very close to each other.

"While our instrument was telling us that the graphene was shaped like a bubble clamped at the edges, the simulations run by our colleagues at the University of Maryland showed that we were only detecting the graphene's highest point," says NIST scientist Nikolai Zhitenev. "Their calculations showed that the shape was actually more like the shape you would get if you poked into the surface of an inflated balloon, like a teepee or circus tent."

The researchers discovered that they could tune the strain in the drumhead using the conducting plate upon which the graphene and substrate were mounted to create a countervailing attraction and pull the drumhead down. In this way, they could pull the graphene into or out of the hole below it.

And their measurements showed that changing the degree of strain changed the material's electrical properties.

For instance, the group observed that when they pulled the graphene membrane into the tent-like shape, the region at the apex acted just like a quantum dot, a type of semiconductor in which electrons are confined to a small region of space.

Creating semiconducting regions like quantum dots in graphene by modifying its shape might give scientists the best of both worlds: high speed and the band gap crucial to computing and other applications.

According to Zhitenev, the electrons flow through graphene by following the segments of the hexagons. Stretching the hexagons lowers the energy near the apex of the tent-like shape and causes the electrons to move in closed, clover-shaped orbits -- mimicking nearly exactly how the electrons would move in a vertically varied magnetic field.

"This behavior is really quite remarkable," says Zhitenev. "There is a little bit of electron leakage, but we found that if we complemented the pseudomagnetic field with an actual magnetic field, there was no leakage whatsoever."

"Normally, to make a graphene quantum dot, you would have to cut out a nanosize piece of graphene," says NIST fellow Joseph Stroscio. "Our work shows that you can achieve the same thing with strain-induced pseudomagnetic fields. It's a great result, and a significant step toward developing future graphene-based devices."

The work was a collaborative effort with the University of Maryland, College Park, and the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. N. Klimov, S. Jung, S. Zhu, T. Li, C. Wright, S. Solares, D. Newell, N. Zhitenev and J. Stroscio. Electromechanical Properties of Graphene Drumheads. Science, Vol. 336 no. 6088 pp. 1557-1561 DOI: 10.1126/science.1220335

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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Syrian fighter pilot defects to Jordan, gets asylum

AMMAN (Reuters) - A Syrian air force pilot flew his MiG-21 fighter plane over the border to Jordan and was granted political asylum on Thursday, the first defection with a military aircraft since the start of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

The pilot landed at the King Hussein military air base 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Amman and immediately asked for sanctuary, Jordanian officials told Reuters.

"The cabinet has decided to grant the Syrian pilot political asylum upon his request," Jordan's Minister of State for Information Samih al-Maaytah told Reuters.

Syria's defense ministry called the pilot a "traitor to his country and his military honor".

In a statement it said it would punish the man, named as Colonel Hassan Hamada, under military law. Syria was in contact with Jordanian authorities to retrieve the aircraft, it added.

The defection will boost the morale of the rebel movement fighting Assad at a time when government forces are intensifying efforts to crush the uprising and international peace efforts are stalled.

Thousands of soldiers have deserted government ranks in the 15 months since the revolt broke out and they now form the backbone of the rebel army. But unlike last year's uprisings in Libya and Yemen, no members of Assad's inner circle have broken with him.

Elsewhere on Thursday, the Syrian army maintained its bombardment of downtown areas of Homs even though a temporary truce had been agreed to allow aid workers to evacuate the sick and wounded.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said its aid workers had been forced to turn back on the way into Homs old city because of shooting but would try again later in the day.

"The shelling across the city has been relentless since last night, intensifying this morning. The army has no intention of relieving the humanitarian situation. They want Homs destroyed," activist Abu Salah told Reuters from Homs.

The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 125 people were killed around the country during the day, with at least 18 of them in Homs.

DEFECTIONS

Opposition sources said pilot Hamada is a 44-year-old Sunni Muslim from Idlib province and he had smuggled his family to Turkey before his dramatic defection.

His hometown Kfar Takharim has been repeatedly shelled in the past several months and suffered intense artillery and helicopter bombardments in the last few days, opposition campaigners who spoke to his family said.

Many air force personnel and well as army soldiers are from Syria's Sunni majority, although intelligence and senior officers are largely Alawite, the minority sect to which Assad and his family belong and which forms their power base.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies says the air force has 365 combat capable aircraft, including 50 MiG-23 Flogger and MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters and 40,000 personnel - a reflection of the overwhelming military advantage Assad has over his poorly-equipped foes.

The most prominent defection so far in the conflict was that of Colonel Riad al-Asaad last July, who helped set up the rebel Free Syria Army after taking refuge in Turkey.

Last week Brigadier General Ahmad Berro, head of a tank unit in Aleppo province, fled with his family to Turkey.

Though a boost to Assad's foes, the pilot's defection could complicate the international scenarios of a conflict that many governments fear could spill over Syria's border and spread though the already volatile Middle East.

Ties between Jordan and Syria were already strained - Jordan has criticized Assad over his crackdown on the uprising but has been restrained in its rhetoric.

Amman is nervous over a possible Syrian military reaction after months of border tension as thousands of Syrians flee the violence to Jordan.

A Jordanian official, who asked not to be named, said the incident with the pilot was "difficult to handle".

MORNING BARRAGE

In Homs, dawn broke to heavy shelling but the barrages eased up during the day, resident Waleed Faris said.

"Now I can hear one or two mortars fall every half an hour. It is quiet today compared to the past few days," he said.

Two people were killed in his neighborhood of Khalidiya on Thursday, he said.

Homs has been at the center of the revolt against four decades of dynastic rule by the Assad family and became the focus of world concern in February and March when opposition-held neighborhoods endured weeks of government bombardments and sniper fire in which hundreds of people were killed.

In other violence on Thursday, activists said 18 people were killed when government forces rained shells on the village of Enkhel in the southern Deraa province, birthplace of the revolt.

Video posted on the Internet showed nine bodies wrapped in blankets and surrounded by weeping men and women.

Syrian state news agency SANA said 21 law enforcement members and civilians were buried on Thursday.

The United Nations says more than 10,000 people have been killed by Assad's forces during the conflict. The government says at least 2,600 members of the military and security forces have been killed by what it characterizes as a plot by foreign-backed "Islamist terrorists" to bring it down.

With a joint U.N.-Arab League ceasefire plan in tatters and the international community divided, world leaders and diplomats have been unable to stop the bloodshed.

The Arab League's deputy secretary general, Ahmed Ben Helli, criticized Russia on Thursday for selling arms to Syria and said that U.N. sanctions could be needed to force Assad and the rebels to implement international envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan.

"Any assistance in aiding violence should be stopped. When you deliver military equipment you are helping to kill people. That should be stopped," he told Russia's Interfax news agency.

Russia, one of Assad's main suppliers of military equipment, has shielded its long-standing ally Syria from tougher U.N. sanctions. It says the solution must come through political dialogue, an approach most of the Syrian opposition rejects.

(Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes, Erika Solomon and Dominic Evans in Beirut, Thomas Grove in Moscow, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, David Cutler in London; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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Europeans get some relief with Euro 2012 wins

Greek fans celebrate in downtown of Thessaloniki on Sunday June 17, 2012. A defensive Greece held off a nearly nonstop Russian attack on Saturday, putting the 2004 champions into the European Championship quarterfinals and eliminating Russia with a 1-0 victory. (AP Photo/Dimitri Messinis)

Greek fans celebrate in downtown of Thessaloniki on Sunday June 17, 2012. A defensive Greece held off a nearly nonstop Russian attack on Saturday, putting the 2004 champions into the European Championship quarterfinals and eliminating Russia with a 1-0 victory. (AP Photo/Dimitri Messinis)

Greek fans celebrate in downtown of Thessaloniki on Sunday June 17, 2012. A defensive Greece held off a nearly nonstop Russian attack on Saturday, putting the 2004 champions into the European Championship quarterfinals and eliminating Russia with a 1-0 victory. (AP Photo/Dimitri Messinis)

Greek fans celebrate in downtown of Thessaloniki on Sunday June 17, 2012. A defensive Greece held off a nearly nonstop Russian attack on Saturday, putting the 2004 champions into the European Championship quarterfinals and eliminating Russia with a 1-0 victory. (AP Photo/Dimitri Messinis)

FILE - In this July 3, 2010 file photo German Chancellor Angela Merkel celebrates next to South African President Jacob Zuma, left, after Germany's Thomas Mueller scored a goal during the World Cup quarterfinal soccer match between Argentina and Germany at the Green Point stadium in Cape Town, South Africa. Merkel will travel to Germany's European Championship quarterfinal match against Greece for a game that brings together nations at opposite ends of Europe's debt crisis, the German government said Wednesday, June 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Gero Breloer, File)

Filippo Bich, 33, designer, left, hugs his friend Edoardo Petti, 38, journalist, after Italy's Antonio Cassano scored during the Euro 2012 soccer match between Italy and Ireland broadcast on a tv,screen outside of a bar, in downtown Rome, Monday, June 18, 2012. Italy scored a goal in each half to beat Ireland and reach the quarterfinals but the mood on the streets of the Italian capital was as listless as the economy. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca)

ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? Chancellor Angela Merkel watched Germany weather the storm and emerge with flying colors, while other European countries simply floundered.

Only this time, it wasn't a test of economic strength in the ailing eurozone. It was the first round of the European Championship ? a soccer extravaganza lasting 3 1/2 weeks that dishes out elation and disappointment to millions of people from the Irish Sea to the Chinese border.

Just as Germany has enjoyed growth while other eurozone economies have sunk into recession, its team has emerged unscathed from arguably the toughest group at the tournament after beating Portugal, the Netherlands and Denmark.

However, Germany hasn't been the only one to prosper at Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine.

Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain may be struggling with waves of government austerity drives, high unemployment and either the prospect or the reality of embarrassing bailouts, but their soccer teams are doing just fine.

Among the 17-nation eurozone's financially troubled nations, only Ireland was sent home this week after failing to reach the quarterfinals. But ? just as Irish people have received plaudits for coping so stoically with austerity, their hard-drinking, fun-loving fans have by far been the best of the tournament.

Important though the sporting stakes may be, the soccer gods have also proved to have a sense of humor.

Germany will be up against Greece in the quarterfinals in Gdansk, Poland ? the biggest contributor to the bailout funds playing against the nation that ignited Europe's debt woes.

The irony wasn't lost on the Berliner Kurier newspaper, which printed a cartoon Tuesday of a German government spokesman telling the media that "our stance on Greece remaining in the eurozone depends entirely upon how the quarterfinal goes."

Germany's Bild newspaper put it like this: "Be happy dear Greeks, the defeat on Friday is a gift. Against (German coach) Jogi Loew, no rescue fund will help you."

Loew refused to be baited, laughingly telling reporters in Gdansk that the German team has a "close relationship" with Merkel.

"We've reached a deal in which she has no say in picking the lineup and tactics and we not in her political statements," he joked.

Here's a look at some key soccer results in the prism of the eurozone crisis:

___

GREECE 1, RUSSIA 0

For Greeks who have seen their living standards plummet in the debt crisis, their team's unexpected win against Russia on Saturday night was as much about national validation as sporting prowess. Street celebrations in Athens saw Greeks wrapped in their flag, wearing replica helmets of ancient Greek warriors and waving spears.

"Greeks are portrayed as garbage abroad, but at least on the field we're not," said 29-year-old high school teacher Alexis Vasiliou.

Greece may be a debt-engulfed country that's threatening to drag down the entire eurozone, but at least has a soccer team its people are proud of.

"The spectacle offers people an outlet, an escape to leave behind even for 90 minutes this flood of negativity from the crisis," said Demetris Vestarchis, the owner of Mentor Cafe in the Athens suburb of Thission. "Most Greeks identify with these players who are showing that we're not dead and gone."

"What the politicians can't do for this country, these players have," said Yiannis Minasian, an unemployed 44-year-old. "These guys have heart and guts, something that politicians don't have."

___

ITALY 2, IRELAND 0

Italy scored a goal in each half to reach the quarterfinals but the mood on the streets of the Italian capital was as listless as its hurting economy.

Romans packing a pub near the Campo dei Fiori, a popular square, to follow the match on TV. Afterward, they glumly described the victory as a metaphor for the state of the nation, which is facing concerns it could be the next country after Spain to need an international bailout.

"Look around, do you see people celebrating? No, because although it is a victory, we can only partially feel it," said Marco Cantelli, a 37-year-old banker.

"This team doesn't even help to forget the crisis. Actually, it makes it worse," said interior decorator Filippo Bich.

In Dublin, Irish fans walked out of pubs looking disillusioned after their Boys in Green bowed out of the tournament with three straight defeats. Some compared the ineptness of their athletes to the inability of their government leaders to negotiate better bailout terms.

"We're outgunned on the football pitch and in Europe. We need a win to feel better about ourselves," said Terry Rafferty, a retired Dublin bank manager.

___

PORTUGAL 2, DENMARK 1

In Porto, Portugal, fans jumped from bar stools in dismay when their team made mistakes Sunday night. But citizens of this tiny bailed-out country emerged elated and briefly forgot their deep economic misery with communal cries of "Golo!" each time the team scored and finally beat Denmark.

Flag-waving supporters clogged streets with their cars, honking horns as drivers and passengers yelled "Portugal!" over and over. However, fans said the mood was much more subdued than during Euro 2004, which was held in Portugal, when the country's economy was charging ahead following its adoption of the euro.

After years of overspending, Portugal took a bailout last year and now has high unemployment, recession and harsh austerity measures imposed by creditors.

"We can have a break from the crisis of at least a month with Euro 2012, but I think both are coexisting, the cheerful mood and the crisis," said Ricardo Teixeira, a 30-year-old doctor. "Our life is completely dominated by the crisis."

Unemployed housekeeper Fatima Santos, 45, watched the game on large-screen TVs in Porto's main plaza ? happy to forget her economic worries for a few hours.

"Right now with the crisis we do what is possible to enjoy life," she said. "Being depressed isn't worth it and giving up would be like dying."

___

SPAIN 1, CROATIA 0

Spain's late goal Monday night against a skillful Croatia generated whoops of joy in Madrid's packed bars after a particularly depressing day. The country's risk of needing an international bailout increased dramatically when its key bond interest rate hit an unsustainable rate of more than 7 percent ? a figure that had previously prompted Greece, Ireland and Portugal to ask for bailouts.

Fans said the win was redemption for a proud country and maybe ? just maybe ? a sign that Spain will emerge from its crushing financial chaos intact.

"Spain's economy is against the ropes, but watching our team struggle, suffer and win against tough opposition inspires us to think that if you work hard you can overcome," said Diego Escalante, a 28-year-old lawyer. "You can read a lot into this beautiful sport and translate it to life. Preparation and talent make up the base, and teamwork adds the cherry on top. Many Spaniards are talented, excellently prepared and educated to good levels. If we work together we will come through this."

Sales executive Ramona Zulma, 37, said her country's Euro 2012 performance showed that Spain is capable of achieving great things.

"Spain is not a backwater," she said. "It is a country that has worked hard to get where it is, and it is so sad and depressing to see that for reasons that many of us barely understand we are now suffering economic difficulties."

____

Rising reported from Berlin. Contributing to this report: Harold Heckle in Madrid, Ana Paiva in Porto, Paola Barisani in Rome, and Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin.

Associated Press

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