Soccer-Euro-Chilly Geneva fills up with Portuguese and Turks

By Iain Rogers

GENEVA, June 7 (Reuters) - A damp and slightly chilly Geneva was filling up with colourful and boisterous Portugal and Turkey fans ahead of Saturday's Euro 2008 Group A match.

The flags of both countries were fluttering from buildings and cars around the lakeside city and the beer was flowing at the fan zone at the Plainpalais in the centre.

Flag-draped and horn-honking Turkey fans were giving a good account of themselves, despite being outnumbered by members of Geneva's 30,000-strong Portuguese community and supporters who had travelled up from Portugal.

Carlos Brum da Silva, a devoted 51-year-old Portugal fan from the Azores islands, said he arrived in Switzerland last Monday with two friends and planned to stay as long as his team remained in the tournament.

"This year we maybe don't have such a good side as at the last World Cup," he said, resplendent in a full-length coat in the Portugal colours and matching trousers.

Da Silva said he had followed Portugal to every major soccer tournament since the Mexico World Cup in 1986.

This time he had driven up to Switzerland in a Mercedes van painted in the national colours and plastered with old match tickets in which he and his friends were also sleeping.

Turkish-born 36-year-old Ismail, who lives in Stuttgart in southern Germany, said he and his three friends had left home on Saturday morning at 5 a.m. (0300 GMT) and it had taken around six hours to drive to Geneva.