A summer evening in Lisbon and the best footballer on the planet, France’s Zinedine Zidane, slots home his second goal in a minute to give France a dramatic, come-from-behind victory over England.

For Sven-Göran Eriksson’s side and their teeming supporters, who have taken over the old city’s bars and sardine grills as well as the Estádio da Luz, the maestro’s one-two is a numbing blow. For everyone else, this stunning dénouement, and the pulsating 90 minutes of football that preceded it, are professional sport at something close to its best, a perfect illustration of why the European Championship is such an intense, compelling and increasingly popular competition.