The English have gone, and the football purists and security officials are thrilled. But across Germany there is a pall of gloom — intangible, unspoken — because England’s loss is Germany’s too: An economic opportunity cut short.

Put simply, the English army of fans were the largest, the highest-spending, most travelled of all the supporters’ groups. There were, by conservative estimates, 80,000 of them at Gelsenkirchen on Saturday. If each spent 100 euro on travel, services, food and drink (especially the latter), that’s a cool 8 million euro in one day.

The English fans in full strength present a sight to behold and, given that there have only been a couple of incidents (chiefly in Stuttgart a fortnight ago), even the cost of broken glass and furniture is minimal. Many of them came in caravans to cut on hotel costs but what they saved on lodging they spent on boarding — i.e., the vast quantities of beer they consumed.

Indeed, beer has been a lubricant in the potential friction because the English and German fans. After the defeat to Portugal yesterday a group of English fans were confronted with a similar group of Germans on the train ride out of Gelsenkirchen; the tension lasted a few moments before they started talking about the quality, and varieties, of beer in Germany!

That’s the kind of partying Munich and Berlin were looking forward to over the next week. The invasion would have been double, at the very least, given the size of the venues of the semi-final and final. On the way to Berlin station on Saturday mrning, Ahmet, a taxi driver, was praying for England’s win later that day and in the semis on Wednesday. That would ensure England and their fans would hit Berlin from Thursday onwards.

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