Euro 2004 security worries

GERMANY’S potentially explosive match with Holland in Oporto has been targeted by security officials as a flash-point for hooliganism at the Euro 2004 finals in June.

England’s match with Croatia in Lisbon is the other match worrying the authorities.

“The games with the biggest risk will take place in Lisbon and Oporto. But the Germany-Holland match poses the biggest risk of all, it is an explosive mixture,” junior interior minister Nuno Magalhaes told the Visao newsweekly.

Germany play Holland in Oporto on June 15 and Magalhaes, said England’s clash with Croatia six days later in Lisbon was the second biggest worry. Organisers have switched the venues for the two matches to bigger cities where policing of troublemakers would be easier.