When Ruud van Nistelrooy [Images] stays on his feet in the area after a rash challenge and 80,000 fans flock to a city with little trouble it is fair to say behaviour has been good on and off the pitch in Euro 2008's [Images] first week.

True, 157 mainly German fans were detained when their team played Poland but, while there was some chanting of Nazi slogans at Klagenfurt, there was precious little actual violence.

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"If we are talking about respect and players' behaviour, the [UEFA [Images]] president [Michel Platini [Images]] is very pleased with what he has seen," William Gaillard, spokesman for European soccer's governing body said on Wednesday.

"And we can only praise the fans who are behaving in a fantastic way in this tournament. It probably helps that the players are behaving so well. No red cards, very few yellow cards and we rejoice in that."

The first eight games produced 24 yellows, an average of three per game, with Spain versus Russia [Images] not featuring a single booking.

There have been few really bad tackles and most of the cautions have been for mistimed, rather than malicious, contact while diving and exaggerating injury has mercifully been relatively thin on the ground.

FOOTBALLING KARMA

True, the players of Portugal and Turkey began their game with a sideshow competition of who can roll farthest after a foul but even they settled down and get on with the football.

Van Nistelrooy stayed on his feet by riding a penalty area challenge in the early stages of the game against Italy [Images], when he could easily have gone down, and then lost possession.

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Footballing karma came into play when the big striker scored the opening goal in a 3-0 win that at first glance looked offside, but was given because Christian Panucci [Images] played him onside even though the Italian was off the pitch at the time.

In years gone by the ensuing Azzurri uproar would have been heard right across Europe but this time there were only muted complaints from the Italians who had been totally outplayed.

The general spirit among the players seems civilised, with the ball being returned after treatment for injuries, genuine-looking handshakes and even substitutes from opposing teams warming up together without managing to fall out.

Off the pitch the Germany [Images] versus Poland game was an aberration. Vast numbers of fans have descended on the host countries, drunk them dry and staggered home with a cheery wave from the underemployed security forces.

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Even national anthems are not being booed too much, though the absence of England's [Images] supporters has helped in that regard.

The fan zones, one of the best developments at major tournaments in recent years, have again been hugely popular as thousands have flocked to watch the games on big screens.

"It's amazing we can gather hundreds of thousands of people together in the major cities of Switzerland [Images] and Austria and have absolutely no disturbance to public order," said Gaillard.