| England's crash out of Euro 2004 |
| Posted: June 25th, 2004 |
| By:
Colin Coates |
 |
The whole country had high hopes for England at this summer's Euro 2004 championship in Portugal but in the end we went down in the same way as we did in 1990, 1996 and 1998 - a penalty shoot-out. However, many fans are crying foul play by the referee so the question is; were we robbed or did we just fail to do the job? |
The English are renowned for their sense of fair
play but when that crucial last minute goal from Sol Campbell was
disallowed by the Swiss referee Urs Meier a sea of England supporters
felt their team was to put it politely 'ROBBED BY THE REF'.
IN THE FORUMS
"OK the ref was poor but i lay the blame squarely at sven's door."
plonsdale
JOIN
THE DISCUSSION |
Had the goal be allowed to stand England would more
than likely have won the match and booked their place in the Euro
2004 semi finals and booted the hosts out.
To be fair we had to agonisingly hold on to our narrow lead for much
of the game as the Portuguese piled on the pressure spurred on by
their home fans.
And with only ten minutes left on the clock
England's defence had been equal to everything their opponents had
to throw at them and it looked like we were going to pull it off but
then the Portuguese began the curtain call and the drama began.
 |
| English and Portuguese
fans shared equal proporations of anguish throughout the tie. |
Portugal equalised through a headed goal from a
super sub just 5 minutes or so after coming on and they weren't happy
with just that. To follow came a sizzling goal from yet another super
sub, this time a veteran Rui Costa.
The tables had turned on England but they didn't give up and within
a couple of minutes they had the Portuguese fans seeing red when Lampard
connected with a John Terry header to blast the ball home for a truly
valuable equaliser.
With just one minute of full time remaining a dreaded penalty shoot-out
was looming but the men in white shirts somehow knew they didn't want
to go there and mounted a last minute offensive on the Portuguese
goal but Sol Campbell's excellent effort which looked like a well
won goal was disallowed by the man in black.
England now had to face their demons in the shape of a penalty shoot-out
and we couldn't have go off to a worse start with our captain shooting
well over the bar ( his third consecutive penalty miss for England
) to give the Portuguese an early advantage.
We were thrown a lifeline when Rui Costa followed in Bekham's footsteps
and shot well over but it only served to prolong the agony for England
fans who had to watch the Portuguese goalkeepr save Vassell's spot
kick without any gloves on then dust himself down to turn penalty
taker and win the match with what was probably the best penalty of
the lot.
So another painful defeat from the penalty spot and football will
have to wait for at least another 2 years before coming home.
However, the question remains - were we robbed or did we just fail
to do the job? |
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