Jubilant Germany catches its breath

Text buddies
Merkel, 53, was once more in attendance at the game in Basel last night, having forged a relationship with the players and coach Joachim Löw, even reportedly sending regular text messages to team members – especially Bastian Schweinsteiger. She too was left exhausted but thrilled after Wednesday's 3-2 victory. "I really must say I often had to catch my breath," she said. "Of course, I heartily congratulate our team."

Berlin throng
She was not alone in celebrating the moment, with an estimated crowd of 500,000 gathering back in Berlin to watch the match on three giant screens at the city's fan mile. The presence of large numbers of Turkish fans made for a party atmosphere, although it was the black, red and gold German flags that were being paraded around the city in triumph after the game.

'Our nerves!'
However, it was not a triumph that came easy – for the team or the fans. German tabloid Bild acknowledged as much on its website, writing: "Madness! Our nerves!" Admitting that Turkey had outplayed Löw's men, the paper added: "There was no trace of the thrilling, rapid and direct play we saw against the Portuguese in the quarter-finals. Was it arrogance or nerves?"

Celebrating together
Meanwhile, in the heavily Turkish Kreuzberg district of Berlin, the mood was overwhelmingly positive after the game, with German and Turkish fans celebrating together until the early hours of the morning. With around 2.7 million people of Turkish origin living in Germany the flags of both countries have been fluttering side-by-side from buildings and cars since the start of UEFA EURO 2008™.