The Athletic. Listeners, you're a cosmopolitan bunch, so if you're looking for a break from all of this England euphoria or just a bit of perspective, here's the latest episode of our Euro Stories documentaries looking back on Euro 2008.

You'll notice there's no England in this one because they Steve McLaren, qualifying, but there is a whole lot of Raffaughan, Julianne, Sasha Gourinov and Alvaro-Rameo. You can subscribe to this series by searching for Beyond the Headline on Apple, Spotify and all the usual places. We've done each tournament since 1988, and the 2012 and 2016 episodes will be out in the build-up to the final next week. Anyway, Jimbo and Coe will be back on Friday night after the first two quarter finals,

so it's over to your bay and mine, Ian McIntosh.

And gentlemen, and, you know, the Taken ladies too.

It's 2008, and across the pond, it's all about Barack, Beyonce and Brittany.

But over here, we're setting up for a fiesta of football.

The European championships are once again held in not one but two countries.

This time, Austria and Switzerland.

And if you're here to find out how England did, you're in the wrong place.

They decided that their years of rampaging dominance over international football were

becoming... You know what? They just didn't qualify.

Petritch again. I scored. Explanary. It's the substitute Petrich with the deadly left foot and Croatia have gone three two up.

And England are out of the European Championships.

Steve McLaren, Jazz Fusion Tactics. It was all very regrettable.

But look, everyone else is here and And it's four groups of four.

Top two go through and knock out football all the way to the final in Vienna.

So let's check out Group A.

Where it's the Czech Republic, Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey all lined up and ready to do battle.

Co-host Switzerland take on the Czech Republic in the first game,

but the Czechs poop the party with a 1-0 win.

Later that night, Portugal's sweep-aside Turkey

taking part in the first tournament

...