Europe Stranger than fiction: Germany-Greece eurocrisis invades the soccer pitch

The political loggerheads between Germany and Greece have defined the European financial crisis. Now, the struggle hits the soccer field in Friday's Euro 2012 quarterfinal.

By , Correspondent

Alvaro Barrientos/AP

Sport is war minus the shooting, George Orwell once said. The European Football Championships 2012, currently being held in Poland and Ukraine, have so far been a fairly peaceful affair. Only Poland against Russia was a politically loaded match, illustrating deep-seated animosities harking back to decades of difficult relations between the two countries. Almost inevitably there were scuffles in the streets around the stadium.