Fans or supporters?

Supporters of the Italian team are referred to as tifosi, singular tifoso. Its primary meaning is a typhus patient, in Italian being il tifo.

Ecstatic Italian fans are held to be displaying symptoms similar to patients in the throes of typhus, including clouding of consciousness, partial loss of hearing, violent muscle spasms and delirium. This may all seem strange to English ears.

But the Italians are equally bemused by the word "fan", which is used for the English supporters, because it is derived from "fanatic" - a religiously inspired frenzy.

Perhaps this underlines the two countries' approach to sport in general. For the British, it is a religion, for the Italians, an illness.