TEHRAN, June 24: A group of eight British soldiers captured by Iran's hardline Revolutionary Guards were allowed to watch Monday's England-Croatia clash in the European soccer championship, a top Guards commander said on Thursday.

"They were so demoralized and could not even talk, so to cheer them up we mobilised our resources so they could watch the England-Croatia match live," deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards naval forces, Admiral Ali Fadavi, told the official news agency IRNA.

England won the match 4-2, advancing to the quarter-finals. The six Royal Marines and two sailors were arrested on Monday after they strayed into Iranian waters along the Shatt al Arab waterway that demarcates the border between Iran and British-occupied southern Iraq. The men were released into the care of British diplomats on Thursday. -AFP