How a British opera star sang a ruder version of the Croatian national anthem

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Tony Henry sang a saucy line by mistake during the Croatian national anthem

Tony Henry belted out nearly all of Lijepa Nasa Domovino (Our Beautiful Homeland) flawlessly in the pouring rain before the vital Euro 2008 qualifier - despite the ill-mannered booing from some England fans in the 90,000 sell-out Wembley crowd.

But instead of singing 'Mila kuda si planina' ('You know my dear how we love your mountains'), he instead sang 'Mila kura si planina', which translates as 'My dear, my penis is a mountain'.

The Croatian mascots giggled after the blunder

Immediately after Henry sung the line, which is written in old-style Croat, players including Vedran Corluka and Luka Modric started grinning. Even the team's child mascots had a giggle at the gaffe.

Croat fan websites have called for the Londoner, who now lives in Inverness, to get a medal for helping the players relax ahead of their 3-2 victory.

Some want him made an official mascot for Euro 2008 while an online petition asks the Croatian FA to employ him for the tournament next summer.

Aeljka Tomljenovic, from the British-Croatian Society, said: 'His version didn't sound like the original but our national anthem is very hard to sing and I don't envy him because the pronunciation is so difficult.'

The Metro newspaper broke the news of the mistake to Henry's agent, Douglas Gillespie, last night.

He said: 'Tony had a great reception from the Croatian fans and already feels part of their campaign for Euro 2008.'