The BBC Studio for Euro 2024 is a thing of beauty. It's positioned in front of Berlin's most celebrated landmark and it has some fantastic CGI trickery to bring it all together. But at half-time during Portugal vs Czech Republic on the Beeb, the ceiling of the entire studio appeared to take off, when the green-screening failed.
Gary Lineker and the BBC pundits are currently sat in a studio that has full lighting above, with green all around to project a cathedral-like environment that changes with the game – but in a weird glitch, it suddenly failed. We've heard about cuts at the BBC but we didn't think they'd halve the studio during a game. Of course, Lineker and co.
will be none the wiser of what's happening around them. It's the one major talking point of the coverage so far. Portugal began the game strongly, with the plethora of talent in their first XI interchanging positions and roles, with Joao Cancelo on the left ahead of Nuno Mendes and Diogo Dalot starting at right-back.
Both Bernardo Silva and Bruno Fernandes whipped crosses into the 12-yard box with no one on the end of them. On seven minutes, the first big chance came to Cristiano Ronaldo with another cross from the left-hand side, with the Al-Nassr forward getting a flick with his forehead towards the ball – though it went just wide. On 25 minutes, Rafael Leao came closest for the Portuguese when he was inches away from a drilled ball that he just couldn't connect with.
Just after the half-hour mark, Ronaldo.