Paper Monitor
12:40 UK time, Tuesday, 12 June 2012
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
Usually Paper Monitor knows what to expect from an international football tournament - jingoism, World War II analogies and feverish, unshakeable expectations of triumph.
How very different Euro 2012 seems. Expectations surrounding England, the only home nation represented at the tournament are best described as subdued.
Even the Sun is struggling to sum up much in the way of optimism in the wake of the team's opening fixture, a 1-1 stalemate with France.
"YIPPEE!," declares the front page, against a backdrop of unsmiling manager Roy Hodgson giving the thumbs-up. "A DRAW!"
Scots, Welsh and Northern Ireland fans may welcome this novelty, but Paper Monitor is somewhat discombobulated.
It falls to the Daily Mirror - which gave the world the notorious front page during the 1996 tournament - to offer a line that can be described as optimistic, but only by comparison with its rival.
"At least we can carry on dreaming" is the conclusion of its
However, the Daily Mail does the unthinkable - it confines all football coverage to its back pages.
No doubt soccer-haters will rejoice. Paper Monitor does not fall into this category. But the purist in this column likes the notion of reading about news in the news section and sport in the sport section.
The 
