[danielf]

Think it's live? Think Again.

UEFA has come under fire in Germany for allowing prerecorded scenes to be cut into live coverage of games from the European Championships.

Images of a German fan crying after Mario Balotelli's second goal in Thursday's 2-1 defeat to Italy were in fact taken before the semifinal, when she was overcome with emotion during the anthems.

The issue came to light when the woman received e-mails from friends at home wondering why she was so upset with almost an hour still to play.

''We are surprised and irritated,'' Joerg Schoenenborn, the Euro 2012 chief editor of German broadcaster ARD, told Saturday's Sueddeutschen Zeitung newspaper. ''These pictures aren't acceptable for us, especially since we spoke to UEFA about this problem a few days ago. We're now looking for further talks.''

UEFA told The Associated Press that it was striving to show ''the human story of the game'' in its television coverage, and had ''no aim whatsoever to exercise any form of control over the images delivered to broadcasters.''

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ARD had first sought UEFA's clarification after Germany coach Joachim Loew was shown playfully knocking a ball from a ball boy's arm during the country's group game against Netherlands, despite the incident happening before the game took place.