The early stages of the opening round of the Euro 2020 Championships were understandably overshadowed by the dramatic collapse on the pitch by Denmark's Christian Eriksen as he suffered cardiac arrest.
Thanks to prompt action by his teammates, match officials and medical staff at the ground, a tragedy was averted.
The players and supporters from both teams should be praised for their dignified behaviour in such a stressful situation.
It was a frightening moment and served as a reminder that there are more important things than football.
The emotional scenes of the stunned crowd and players in tears will not be forgotten. Thankfully the former Tottenham midfielder, now with Inter Milan, seems to be recovering well.
Whether the Danish players were mentally fit to restart the game nearly two hours later is a matter of debate.
It did provide the one real upset of the early games as Finland notched an unexpected 1-0 win.
Denmark were certainly up for their next game against Belgium and driven on by a wave of emotion took a shock early lead, threatening to overwhelm their opponents.
But beware a team that has the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Eden Hazard warming the bench and it was Manchester City star De Bruyne who turned the game around in the second half against the tiring Danes.
Despite their 2-1 win, Belgium will be concerned about lack of pace in defence.
Aside from the Eriksen incident, the most notable feature of the opening week was the welcome presence of spectators.
For the first time in over a year, we heard all the crowd noises familiar to football with spontaneous cheering "oohs" and "aahs" and thankfully not too much booing, although that might change as the tournament progresses.
Because of the Covid-19 restrictions most stadiums were only a quarter full but the spectators more than made up for it with their loud support.
The most impressive turnout was at the Puskas Arena in Budapest where 61,000 showed up to cheer on Hungary.
Their passionate support contributed to Hungary holding Portugal for 84 minutes before the defending champions broke the deadlock.
There followed a brace from the remarkable Cristiano Ronaldo although the eventual 3-0 scoreline rather flattered Portugal.
Ronaldo, 36, now holds the record of most goals (10) in Euro finals, prompting former England striker Chris Sutton to comment: "Ronaldo walks on water, doesn't he?"
The most significant clash was between favourites France and three-time winners Germany.
It was preceded by a Greenpeace protest skydiver making a rather inelegant landing after getting caught up in overhead wires at Munich's Allianz Arena.
The match itself turned out to be a tight affair. With Paul Pogba and N'Golo Kante showing their class, France deserved their 1-0 victory courtesy of an own goal by Mats Hummels.
Of the British teams, it was Wales who caught the eye with a stirring 2-0 victory over Turkey despite Gareth Bale's awful penalty miss.
Apart from that embarrassing moment, Bale performed well with a sublime pass to Aaron Ramsey for the opening goal and setting up the late second.
Following their opening draw with Switzerland, it should be enough to see them into the knockout round although the Swiss could still take second place.
Wales manager Robert Page could not disguise his joy: "I am the luckiest Welshman," he said "I am proud to be part of the team."
England got off to a reasonable start with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Croatia who had beaten their opponents in the World Cup semi-finals three years earlier.
Manager Gareth Southgate will be pleased that on target was Raheem Sterling, a player he had kept faith in despite fan and media pressure.
Scotland's first match in the Euros since 1996 turned out to be a frustrating affair, going down 2-0 to the Czech Republic at Hampden Park.
It also featured goal of the tournament so far with Patrik Schick's extraordinary effort from just inside the Scottish half when he spotted Scottish goalkeeper David Marshall way off his line.
It was unfortunate for Marshall who otherwise had a decent game.
The action really begins once the group stages are completed on Wednesday and we could be in store for some cracking knockout matches.