Italy's De Marchi prevails in Carlsberg Fan Challenge

Italy can chalk off one UEFA EURO 2012 success after AS Roma supporter Lino De Marchi emerged victorious in the Carlsberg Fan Challenge at the finals in the Warsaw fan zone.

De Marchi has won the honour of presenting the Carlsberg Man of the Match award to the winner in Sunday's final in Kyiv after coming through a testing series of events. After finalists from around the world had been selected through applications on Facebook, the final three came to Warsaw for the Carlsberg Fan Challenge on Thursday. Peter Schmeichel, a European champion with Denmark in 1992, adjudicated a series of challenges including table football games and filling as many beer mugs as they could in two minutes.

"I'm very happy," said De Marchi after being announced as the winner. "It's unbelievable. One of my previous tasks was to give a team talk as a coach. My speech was very passionate, actually." Overall runner-up Andre Belga Monteiro Pereira from Lisbon, added: "I am little bit down. It's my second disappointment in a row. First, Portugal lost to Spain on penalties and now I didn't win this competition. Then again, I got to shake hands with Peter Schmeichel and meet some great people." Tomislav Kovač from Croatia, who finished third, added: "The whole idea was great. I was very excited just to be here."