Everyone knew that the Poland/Germany match up at the 2008 Euros was going to ignite tension between supporter groups of the two nations. And it didn’t help when the Polish Tabloid Super Express had a front page picture of Polish head coach Leo Beenhakker holding the severed heads of Michael Ballack and German head coach Joachim Low.

Yesterday Austrian Police officially arrested 206 people during the tournaments first day in the country.

But the true ugliness lied with an official 157 arrests (detainments) in the city of Klagenfurt, where the Poland vs Germany game was held.

Nazi slogan chants were ringing not only inside the stadium, but outside in the city center as police had to separate Polish and German fans from clashing throughout the day.

With just over 2,500 police on site, the Austrian police had their hands full with over 80,000 fans on site.

Of the 157 detained, 144 came from Germany, 10 from Poland, two from Austria and one from Slovenia.

image via RforP