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Thread: Portugal into last four

  1. #1
    Cristiano Ronaldo kept his cool in a nerve-jangling penalty shoot-out to see Portugal through to the last four and send England home on Saturday. The Man United midfielder struck his spot-kick past Paul Robinson to send Luiz Felipe Scolari's men into their first semi-final in forty years.

    It was particuarly harsh on England that Ronaldo was the one to send them home after he had been involved in the incident which meant they battled for almost an hour with ten men after Wayne Rooney was controversially sent off.

    The fiery striker appeared to be fouled only for Argentine referee Horacio Elizondo to award the free-kick against him as Rooney tangled with Ricardo Carvalho on the halfway line.

    There is no doubt Rooney's boot caught Carvalho in the midriff as they clashed, but the dust seemed to have settled when Ronaldo rushed in only to be pushed in the chest by his United team-mate.

    Ronaldo - to his credit - made little of the shove, but Elizondo dramatically reached into his back pocket to brandish a red card and leave Rooney and the England camp stunned.

    SUCCUMBED

    It was a scenario eerily reminiscent of David Beckham's sending-off against Argentina in the 1998 tournament, while Rooney also exited the last encounter between these two at Euro 2004.

    On both occasions, England succumbed on penalties, and the denoument in Gelsenkirchen was no different only that Rooney's metatarsal break was before the tournament this time round.

    There would have been a X-Files investigation had sub Helder Postiga - whose headed goal forced extra time two years ago - not had a goal correctly chalked off for offside after 106 minutes.

    But despite the Rooney decision, Sven-Goran Eriksson's men have few excuses after key players Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard failed from the spot - Portugal keeper Ricardo, who scored the decisive shoot-out penalty at Euro 2004, reserving his heroics for his full-time profession in Germany.

    The Sporting Lisbon stopper parried both midfielder's efforts before getting a touch to Jamie Carragher's penalty to divert it onto the bar and provide Ronaldo with the chance to win it and condemn England to a fifth shoot-out loss in eight major tournaments.

    "We practise penalties so much so I don't know what you can do more about that," revealed Eriksson.

    COMPOSED

    Yet, England will know they should have had the game won before it got that far.

    A cautious first half - which saw Robinson and Ricardo troubled sparingly from long range - gave way to a brighter second with Portugal often on the back foot.

    England had emphasised the importance of possession, and it was they - with Rooney alone front and the excellent Owen Hargreaves holding in midfield - who were the more composed.

    The forced withdrawal of Beckham through injury five minutes after the break saw Aaron Lennon brought into the fray and immediately Eriksson saw his side's menace multiply.

    Lampard - woefully hapless in front of goal throughout the tournament - skewed a volley over the bar when unmarked while Lennon's first touch saw him evade two challenges and feed Rooney - who miskicked - before Joe Cole untidily stabbed the ball over the bar.

    Portugal captain Luis Figo did succeed in extending Robinson with a deft lobbed shot, but England - backed by massive and vociferous support - still could have won it - Lennon's weak follow-up allowing Ricardo to scramble across his goal to smother after he had parried Lampard's well-struck free-kick.

    "I don't think we deserved to lose... .We lost on penalties and I'm really sorry about it. The boys deserved better today," said Eriksson. "We are out of the tournament and it hurts...it's very painful."
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    Never hate your enemies -- it effects your judgement."

  2. #2
    woz a gud game... unfortunatly England lost bt hey im a RONALDOOOOOOOOOOOO FAN!! lolz call me 2 faced bt i wsnt 2 gutted :P

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