Tunnel workers dig for victory

Tunnel workers dig for victory



The important Luzernerring tunnel in Basel has been completed in quick time in order to take traffic at UEFA EURO 2008™.
Credit due
The 650m-long tunnel, which links French highway A35 to Swiss national road N2, was officially opened last Saturday with a special ceremony and traffic began to flow through on Monday. Fans arriving from across Europe will thus benefit from the connection, with the construction workers and architects taking great credit for completing the project in just three months. Other Basel roadways, such as Flughafenstrasse (Airport Road), were also finished on time so EURO traffic can flow unrestricted.

Innsbruck ready for EURO party

Innsbruck ready for EURO party




Innsbruck's Bergisel Arena is more famous for ski jumping but for the next few weeks it will be the city's football central as the official UEFA Fan Zone.
Fan Zone
For the whole of UEFA EURO 2008™ the winter sport haven will host a daily party for up to 15,000 fans from throughout Europe. Every match from the finals will be shown live on the big screen, with free entry from 14.00CET to midnight. Spain, Russia and Sweden will each play two Group D games in the city from 10-18 June.

Landhausplatz launch
First, though, to kick things off the official opening celebration will take place at 18.00CET on Friday at Landhausplatz in the centre of Innsbruck. There will be a raffle of an official adidas EUROPASS ball signed by the Austria squad, a parade of the flags of the 16 competing nations and the first of a programme of free concerts with performances by Mondscheiner and Christina Stürmer. "We cordially welcome everyone from the Tirol region," said Innsbruck host city coordinator Christoph Platzgummer. "It should be a worthy opening for EURO."

Teams

Teams


Group A

Czech Republic
Portugal
Switzerl
andTurkey

Group B

Austria
Croatia
Germany
Poland

Group C

France
Italy
Netherlands
Romania

Group D

Greece
Russia
Spain
Sweden

EURO 2008

The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2008, will take place in Austria and Switzerland, from 7 June to 29 June 2008. It is the second successful joint bid in the competition's history, following the UEFA Euro 2000 hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands. The 2012 competition in Poland and Ukraine is scheduled to become the third jointly-hosted tournament.

A total of 16 teams will participate in the tournament. Austria and Switzerland will automatically qualify as hosts; The remaining 14 teams have been determined through qualifying matches which started in August 2006. Austria and Poland will be making their first appearance in the tournament. The winner of Euro 2008 (Greece) will represent the UEFA at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa.