It started with a light drizzle. Not the full pelt that Singapore is used to, but an annoying pitter-patter that somehow seeps past the cursory defence offered by shoes, and soaks deep into socks. For Ian McKay, it felt a little like home.

"A gift us British have: we're not bothered by the rain," said a smiling McKay, wearing a red England jersey as he stood next to the VLV bar that projected the England-Sweden match onto the side of a shophouse along the Singapore River, its three-storey screen the biggest in Clarke Quay