Latvia - 0 Germany - 0: Fredi Bobic used the word "fantasy". Don't worry, the Germany striker was describing what his team had lacked.

Latvia had just secured the greatest point in their history, while the idea of Germany overcoming the Czech Republic on Wednesday to qualify for the quarter-finals was also embraced by the same word.

The German players were remarkably relaxed, though, and Bobic and company were talking about how the game against the Czechs would be their "play-off final". The assumption was that they will beat the Czechs.

As only the referee, Mike Riley, had prevented Latvia from embarrassing Germany further - he failed to award what seemed an obvious penalty - this confidence was odd to witness.

Yesterday, however, the optimism was given stronger foundation when the Czech manager, Karel Bruckner, said that as they had won the group, he would be resting the brilliant Pavel Nedved among others.

Given that Germany will raise their game, a potential victory does not sound as preposterous as it would have seemed during this match.

If Rudi Völler's side do win they will finish second in the group and meet the winners of Group C - the winners of Sweden versus Denmark or, possibly, Italy - in Faro on Saturday. However, to do that they will surely have to score against the Czechs. The feeling here was that they could play until Wednesday and not score.

"The Czechs are a better team than Germany, better players," said Latvia's Marian Pahars. "The Czechs keep the ball, the Germans just kicked it into our area and hoped for a bit of luck.

"The Czechs keep trying, slowly, to play their way in. In general, Germany weren't strong enough - we played some much harder games in qualification."

The best striker on this pitch was the Latvian Maris Verpakovskis, a man who somehow failed to persuade Wolves to sign him after a trial last summer.

Scorer of Latvia's goal in their 2-1 defeat by the Czech Republic, he was only prevented from snatching a dazzling solo goal before the interval by a world-class save from Oliver Kahn. And Riley then denied him that penalty when Frank Baumann felled him in the 54th minute.

Not even that could subdue the Latvians at the end, though, and their defender Mihails Zemlinskis beamed when he said: "Latvia has just joined the European Union, now we are part of it in football."