LONDON, Nov 18 — Police called off Germany's friendly against the Netherlands in Hanover yesterday, citing a "serious" bomb threat just days after the Paris terror attacks left at least 129 people dead and more than 350 injured.
It was the second high-profile friendly to be cancelled in the wake of Friday's attacks in the French capital, following an earlier decision by Belgian authorities to postpone the country's game against Spain in Brussels amid security fears.
At London's Wembley Stadium, a moving rendition of the French national anthem, 'La Marseillaise', reverberated around the ground as players and fans from both England and France paid tribute to Friday's victims.
The French anthem was also played ahead of Italy's game against Romania at Bologna's Renato Dall'Ara stadium, where a minute's silence was observed to honour the Paris victims as well as those who perished in a Bucharest nightclub fire that killed 56 people last month.
Germany's players and coaching staff were already shaken by Friday's events in Paris, having stayed at the Stade de France until the early hours of Saturday morning before returning home.
Head coach Joachim Loew had labelled yesterday's match as "a symbol of freedom", but instead it was scrapped just 90 minutes before the scheduled 20:45 kick-off local time (1945 GMT) with fans evacuated from the 49,000-capacity HDI Arena.
Hanover city police chief Volker Kluwe said there had been "serious plans to cause an explosion" inside the stadium and that authorities had acted on a "concrete threat scenario".
"We received a serious indication that a bomb attack was planned inside the stadium tonight," he told public broadcaster ARD.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere — who had been due to attend the match along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel — later said the game was cancelled "to protect the population", but did not provide specifics.
The Belgian Football Association called off yesterday's planned fixture between the world's top-ranked side and reigning European champions Spain following the raising of the country's terrorist threat level to 'severe'.
The Belgian FA said it regretted the move, but added: "In view of these exceptional circumstances, we cannot, however, take any risk in security matters for our players and supporters."
Meanwhile, France's friendly with England went ahead as scheduled, serving as the focal point of tributes.
Armed police patrolled Wembley, where many among a crowd of around 80,000 that included British Prime Minister David Cameron and Prince William stood to sing 'La Marseillaise' as the words were displayed on the stadium's big screen.
Prior to the anthems, and a solemnly observed minute's silence, figures including Prince William, France coach Didier Deschamps, England manager Roy Hodgson, French Football Federation president Noel Le Graet and his English counterpart Greg Dyke laid floral tributes beside the pitch.
19-year-old midfielder Dele Alli scored a stunning long-range goal on his full England debut with captain Wayne Rooney netting a second goal early in the second half as the hosts beat a grieving France 2-0 on a particularly emotional night.
In Bologna, Bogdan Stancu gave Romania a first-half lead but Italy responded with a penalty from Claudio Marchisio before Manolo Gabbiadini put the Azzurri ahead, only for Florin Andone to earn the visitors a 2-2 draw in the closing stages.
Elsewhere, Portugal won 2-0 in Luxembourg, Switzerland beat Austria 2-1 in Vienna, while Croatia defeated Russia 3-1 in Rostov. — AFP
