Germany vs Denmark Euro 2024 match resumes after storm

DORTMUND, Germany (AP) — The Germany-Denmark match resumed after being suspended due to a thunderstorm during the European Championship round of 16 clash on Saturday.

The teams resumed play approximately 24 minutes after referee Michael Oliver removed the players from the field, following a brief warm-up session. No puddles were visible, but after play resumed, pieces of turf began to break away and players slipped.

The score was 0–0 in the 35th minute when the referee sent the players off due to heavy rain, strong winds and repeated lightning strikes near the Westfalenstadion. A loud bang rang out in the stadium shortly before the players left.

Hail even fell on the pitch during the interruption, in stark contrast to the warm summer evening.

“Due to unfavorable weather conditions, the match was suspended. More information will follow soon,” we can read on the stadium screens.

Fans in the front rows of the stadium’s famous South Stand moved for cover as the wind blew torrents of rain onto their seats and water cascaded over the edge of the roof. Some German fans sang, “Oh, how beautiful it is,” and a few Danish fans danced in a torrent of water falling on their area of ​​the stands.

Local police said two big screen screenings in local fan zones had been cancelled due to the weather. “Please leave these premises,” police wrote on X.

The winner will face Spain or Georgia in the quarter-finals on July 5.

Severe weather is a recurring problem for UEFA and the European Championship organisers, much more so than for FIFA and the World Cup.

In 2008, co-hosts Switzerland played a group stage match against Turkey in pouring rain in the first half in Basel. Puddles of water in the Turkish goal area allowed Switzerland to take the lead, as the ball was stopped by the standing water and Hakan Yakin was able to score.

The rain eased and the puddles were largely cleared by half-time, but the playing surface at St. Jakob Park survived just one more match – another wet encounter between Switzerland and Portugal – before needing to be resurfaced ahead of the quarter-finals.

The operation to bring a new pitch from the Netherlands cost UEFA 200,000 euros ($214,000), it was reported at the time.

Heavy rain affected another Euro 2012 co-host team. Ukraine’s match against France in Donetsk was abandoned after just five minutes of play by referee Björn Kuipers. While it seemed that the teams would have to return the following day to resume play at the Donbas Arena, the rain eased and the teams resumed play after a 56-minute break.

The effect on television scheduling meant that the next match of the day – Sweden v England in kyiv – was pushed back by 15 minutes.

In France, a Euro 2016 match was interrupted for several minutes by a hailstorm in Lyon, with the players of Northern Ireland and Ukraine leaving the pitch in the 58th minute.

One of the Euro 2016 stadiums has been given a new Dutch pitch laid ahead of the quarter-finals after weeks of persistent rain and little sunshine in Lille.

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Geir Moulson in Berlin and Graham Dunbar in Frankfurt, Germany, contributed.

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AP Euro 2024: https://apnews.com/hub/euro-2024