In Madrid fans defy heat, early starts and the torpor of a slow game to cheer Spain to World Cup victory

From the publisher

Neither the approach of yet another enervating heatwave, nor the prospect of heading to work on Monday morning, was going to keep madrileños huddled indoors when the World Cup, and the stifling streets of the capital, were there for the taking. With the temperature at 9pm nudging 32C, people across the city and the wider region filled bars, parks, fairgrounds and bullrings to drink, to stripe the streets red-and-yellow with their rojigualda flags, and to test their lungs, their nerves, and, as it turned out, their boredom thresholds. In the capital itself, the faithful descended on a giant screen by the river Manzanares and trooped into the cavernous concrete confines…

The source's own excerpt, unedited