Germans partied on Saturday as if they had won the World Cup, with hundreds of thousands of fans rallying across the country to watch their team triumph in the tournament's third-place game.
They gathered before towering outdoor TV screens in this southern city where the game was played, in Berlin and in points between -- and they cheered wildly as their team scored one, two, three times to dispatch Portugal.
swarmed
PHOTO: AP
Fans swarmed into Stuttgart hours ahead of the match to watch on screens at the outdoor fan fest, in bars, restaurants, even on portable TVs. Before the 3-1 win, thousands gathered outside the team's hotel, cheering when players went to their windows and waved.
After the victory, deliriously happy Germans drank, danced and flashed victory signs into the early morning. Police spokesman Clemens Bohnacker said there was nothing to report -- save the cacophony of car horns and chants of "Deutschland! Deutschland!"
More than 1,200 officers were deployed throughout the city but, as they have done since the tournament's start a month ago, they held back on the periphery of the crowds. Some officers even had tiny German flags painted on their faces.
The black, red and gold of the national flag was everywhere.
It was the same scene in Berlin, where police reported no trouble and fans from other countries -- including yesterday's finalists Italy and France -- joined the festivities. In all, police estimated 1 million people massed outdoors to watch the game.
`world champions'
"We became the world champions tonight because we played the best, most attractive football throughout the tournament and we were great hosts," said Henning Trenkamp, an insurance broker from Berlin.
In Hamburg, about 70,000 people gathered to watch the game, while in Munich, police said 13,000 fans got together. In Frankfurt, more than 17,000 watched the game at the Commerzbank Arena with another 25,000 catching the game at the public viewing area along the banks of the Main River.
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