England fans were drinking beer at breakfast after a night of debauchery in Frankfurt.
A heavy police presence in Paulsplatz was on hand yesterday to deal swiftly with any trouble amongst the thousands of English supporters who descended on the German city ahead of the Euro 2024 game against Denmark this afternoon.
But, on a largely peaceful evening in Frankfurt, bad behaviour was limited to a few scraps between England fans and songs about Tommy Robinson.
The Express has since learned that plainclothes English police officers had been watching events from a nearby restaurant, on hand to communicate to their German colleagues if necessary.
As Frankfurt awoke to go to work the partying continued. England fans could be seen in the main square from 10am sinking cold pints of beer and hanging St George’s flags.
Local businesses braced themselves for more drinking and bars set up temporary fold-out tables to flog thirsty fans cans of beer for €5.
However, it was a more relaxed atmosphere from the raucous scenes of the previous evening when supporters leaped about belting out songs and throwing drinks in the air. In the morning sun, local families and tourists mixed with England fans.
Amongst the Englishmen sipping pints was Thomas Carter, 39, whose alarm went off at 3am this morning for a red-eye flight out of Manchester Airport.
“This is my first drink apart from the airport bar,” he said with a smile. “It was a good flight lots of families and lads coming out. They served us water and then the drinks trolley came out very slow.
“One of the advantages of it being in Germany is the beer. We’re chasing a couple of steins today [beers served in a traditional large German mug] but at the moment I’m having to make do with a plastic cup.”
Carter is a veteran of several tournaments with England and said his experiences following the Three Lions had been overwhelmingly positive.
“Everywhere I’ve been it’s been well-behaved, that’s places like Holland, Denmark, Germany, Latvia, Belarus, even when we went to Russia and lost 1-2 we never saw anything,” he explained.
Over the years he says the people following the national team had become much broader and more diverse.
“Qatar [World Cup in 2022] was completely family-oriented,” he added. “I think half the people didn’t want to travel to that country because they were worried about alcohol and cost.
“From what I’ve seen here that’s continued. One lad has brought his son whose nine years old and it’s his first tournament. There were a lot of kids on the flight and there’s even a pram over there, although it is still 11am.”