Where were you the night a European Championship last- 16 match was suspended for 23 minutes because of a thunderstorm? Let me put that another way: where were you when Germany advanced to the quarter-finals with a swagger in their stride before a buoyant home crowd? A businesslike dispatch of Denmark – albeit with a helping hand from the motion-sensing microchip inside the match ball partly made of sugar cane – brought great communal rejoicing and a ruthless display provided a compelling argument for why the hosts will be hard to stop from here. The Germany roadshow, which has taken in Munich, Stuttgart, Frankfurt and now Dortmund, continues apace, returning to Stuttgart on Friday.
This was a peculiar, unforgettable evening and when the referee, Michael Oliver, restarted play after the weather delay, dropping the ball at the majestic feet of Toni Kroos, suddenly it was the 35th minute all over again. It was a freakish occasion when those in the cheap seats could feel smug, those in row A not so much. Some Germany supporters in the iconic 25,000-strong Südtribüne had sought safety in the concourses as conditions worsened under doomed black skies.
