June 13 – ZZ Tops England
THE usual cycle for England in an international tournament goes thusly: wild pre-tournament optimism is heightened by a strong early performance by the Three Lions, who then start to believe the hype before meeting their match against a decent side who knocks them out, usually in an extremely heartbreaking manner.
Today in 2004 Sven’s men managed to just about cram this whole process into 90 minutes in their opening Euro 2004 game, as they took on France in Lisbon.
After cruising through the qualification process England were given a tough draw, with Croatia and Switzerland joining defending champions France in Group B.
As usual, in the run-up to the tournament, England expected, as St Georges’ flags found their way onto windows and cars across the land, bookmakers installed England as one of the favourites and the tabloid press began to gush over their boys’ chances.
When the talking stopped and England walked onto the pitch to face Henry, Zidane, Vieira et al, it seemed as though the press and public’s blind optimism might not be too misplaced, as a superb first-half ended with Frank Lampard heading home a David Beckham free-kick to give England a deserved lead.
Wayne Rooney became the second-youngest player to turn out in European Championship match and he was up against Lilian Thuram in the French defence, 15 years his senior and winning his 100th cap for Les Blues. The old head had been doing a good job for the French, as they had entered the game having not conceded for 11 matches, despite having Manchester United flop Fabian Barthez in goal. Lampard’s first-half strike ended a 1,077-minute spell without conceding.
England continued to impress in the second-half and the fearless Rooney was hacked down in the area by his future Manchester United team-mate Mikael Silvestre and England were duly awarded a penalty.
Up stepped David Beckham, undeterred by his spot kick miss in England’s final qualifying game with Turkey, but again he fail to score from 12 yards, as Barthez saved from the England captain.
This proved to be the pivotal moment of the match, as England paid the price for not putting the French to bed. Whether it was tiredness, complacency or just a severe case of bottling it, the match was turned upside down in injury time.
First it was up to Emile Heskey to make a gaff, as he committed a foul on the edge of the area and the peerless Zidane stepped up and curled the free-kick past David James in the 91st minute.
Disappointing, but a draw with a very good France side is no embarrassment. Seconds later though, the draw went out of the window, as Steven Gerrard sold David James short with a dodgy backpass and Henry was brought to ground by the England ‘keeper.
Zidane again came to fore and remarkably vomited as he prepared to take the penalty, but composed himself to slot it home and show fellow Galactico Beckham how it was done.
Having grasped defeat from the jaws of victory, Sven was looking on the bright side: “If we had lost 3-0 and not created a chance it would be different. The players are professional. They know they did an excellent job tonight. They did everything we asked of them and hopefully it will not be too difficult to lift them up.”
And lift them Sven did, but only to his customary quarter-final, where penalty heart-ache against hosts Portugal would follow.
See which other footballing genius was in the thick of it today by clicking here and don’t go changing as we’ll be back to do it all again tomorrow.
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