There’s No Quit in Spain
Spain defeated Yugoslavia, 4-3, with two goals in injury time Wednesday to put both nations in the European Soccer Championship quarterfinals, and German Coach Erich Ribbeck quit a day after his team was eliminated.
The Netherlands edged France, 3-2, to ensure home-field advantage for the rest of the tournament, but the game wasn’t truly a preview of a possible final. Both countries, already assured of advancing, rested top players.
In the day’s other games, Norway and Slovenia played to a scoreless tie, and the Czech Republic shut down Denmark, 2-0.
With the first round complete, the quarterfinals are set: Portugal-Turkey and Italy-Romania on Saturday, and Yugoslavia-Netherlands and Spain-France on Sunday.
On Tuesday, Germany lost to Portugal, 3-0. And Ribbeck quit rather than wait to be fired after Germany was knocked out of a major tournament in the first round for the first time since 1984.
“I draw the conclusions from our catastrophic campaigns and I clear the way for a successor,” Ribbeck said. “I failed to turn Germany’s best players into a competitive team. We were humiliated in the last game.”
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Organizers of England’s bid to hold the 2006 World Cup acknowledge their chances look “very bleak” in the wake of fan violence at the European Championship.
Former sports minister Tony Banks says worldwide coverage of the damage in Belgium and the threat by European soccer authorities to expel England has harmed the bid.
“It is accepted by FIFA as the best bid, but it is now looking very bleak, indeed, because of the damage done by the images flashed round the world,” Banks, a member of the bid committee, told BBC radio.
England, which hasn’t staged the World Cup since 1966, is competing against Germany, South Africa, Brazil and Morocco. FIFA will announce the host country July 6.
