Out after heart-breaker

England's Euro 2004 dream ended in

They lost 6-5 in a
heartstopping contest which
ended with Portuguese
goalkeeper Ricardo saving a shot
from Darius Vassell, then
himself beating England
goalkeeper David James.

Captain David Beckham
crowned a woeful personal
performance in the tournament by
taking his team’s first penalty
and blasting a dismal shot way
over the bar.

It was an agonising end to a
match which had begun with
high hopes. Michael Owen had
appeared to set England on the
road to victory with a goal in
only the third minute.

But they had to play most of
the match without wonder boy
Wayne Rooney, who limped off
midway through the first half.

It was later confirmed that the
18-year-old, who represented
England’s greatest hope, had
broken his foot.

After the shootout, pubs and
living rooms across the nation
went silent with numbed
shock.

Many protested that the
team had been robbed by
controversial decisions from the
Swiss referee, Urs Meier.

England would have enjoyed
a 2-1 victory in normal time if a
headed goal by Sol Campbell in
the 89th minute had not been
disallowed — although TV
replays indicated no breach of
the rules.

The shootout also brought
back grim memories of penalty
failures in previous
tournaments. Complaints that the
dusty penalty spot was in a
disgraceful condition did little to
salve disappointment.

The defeat means that
England — and the estimated 70,000
supporters who had travelled
to Portugal for the tournament
— are now on their way home.

Leaving Lisbon’s Estadio da
Luz, fans slunk back to their
hotels or sat disconsolately on
the pavement, most of them in
tears.

They could only stare in
misery as crowds of delighted
Portuguese danced in the street
and a continuous stream of
cars drove by honking their
horns in celebration.

After Ricardo’s penalty hit
the back of the England net,
hundreds of Portuguese
‘reclaimed’ the Rossio Square
in Lisbon, where a giant screen
had relayed the action.

One Portuguese fan threw a
bottle at a group of England
supporters but was
immediately taken away by police. The
England fans were too
miserable to respond.

After the match, a tearful
Owen said losing on penalties
in a major tournament once
again was a ‘bitter blow’.

‘It is a big disappointment — it
always seems to happen,’ he
told the BBC.

‘These tournaments come
round every two years, so you
can’t expect to go and win it
every year, but going out on
penalties again, it’s a bitter
blow.’

On Campbell’s disallowed
header, Owen said he had not
seen the replay but thought it
was ‘a perfectly good goal’.

Coach Sven Goran Eriksson
said he also thought
Campbell’s ‘goal’ looked good.

‘From the bench it looked all
right. I’ve not seen it on TV, so
I can’t comment,’ he said.

‘It looked all right but the
referee said it was a push and he
decides.’

Back home, more than
20million watched at home and as
many as 10million saw the
match in pubs.

At the Old Stanley Arms in
Old Swan, Liverpool, landlord
John Morrey, 52, who is Wayne
Rooney’s uncle, said: ‘No one
penalty. Whether he would
have scored we’ll never know.’

Possibly the only England fan
celebrating was an anonymous
gambler who bet £3,000 at 7-1
on Owen being the first player
to score — scooping £21,000.

Ladbroke’s spokesman
Warren Lush mournfully admitted:
‘Essentially we wrote Owen off
— and now we’re paying for it.’

William Hill were last night
offering even money that
Eriksson will not be England coach
by the time the 2006 World Cup
finals get under way.

Meanwhile the names of
Beckham and Vassell will now
join those of Pearce, Waddle,
Southgate, Ince and Batty in
the ranks of England’s dismal
penalty shootout failures.

In the 1990 World Cup in Italy,
Stuart Pearce and Chris
Waddle both bungled their shots
against Germany and England
lost their chance of a place in
the World Cup final.

In the Euro 1996 semi-final,
Gareth Southgate, who had
never taken a penalty before,
was chosen to take England’s
first sudden-death kick against
Germany. His feeble effort was
easily saved.

In the 1998 World Cup against
Argentina, in the second
round, Paul Ince and David
Batty both missed.