UEFA Euro 2004

[joltan 0]

That was just incredible!!! After the first goal for France I was saying 'Oh, well, at least now it's even - but they'll never... WTF!!!' - but then Zidane was already preparing for his shot.

I mean this end was a fine example how a too rough style of playing can cost you a game that you dominated right up to the end. I mean a foul by the goal keeper... Very unfortunate for England, they had a superb defense - right up to that moment.

Anyways: Allez les bleus!!!

[Scorpio 0]

Meh...I knew it.

The french is team is crap...they can only win with foul play. But with Zidane, they have the greatest advantage ever.

Fekking Beckham didn't even but an ounce of effort into the penalty. Whilst look at Zidane...he pounds it.

Lucks like England will have to pick themselves up in the coming matches and meet Le France in the final.

Mwehihihi...I prophesize that all the england flags on cars and bedroom windows will come down now.

[edit] Hmm...guess who voted for Greece.

[Shashman 0]

Well I gotta admit I missed half the match, but

What a way to lose

As B-2-0 said....Yeah now I know how Bayern must have felt back then, but I knew then.

But still... Ah well *Is excited for the Italy-Denmark match*

*Is a tiffoso really*

[denoir 0]

Goddamnit !                    

france just got lucky

Luck is what makes life entertaining

Well, you can't count on it. Objectivly England was playing better, especially in the second half. The French did the same thing over and over again. England sported a fixed defence into which the French ran front center over and over again and were stopped each time.

The ending made it a great match to watch though. I couldn't believe my eyes when the penalty came.

I guess Beckham will be jumping off a cliff later today

As I said earlier: amazing

[Monkey Lib Front 10]

Meh...I knew it.

The french is team is crap...they can only win with foul play. But with Zidane, they have the greatest advantage ever.

Fekking Beckham didn't even but an ounce of effort into the penalty. Whilst look at Zidane...he pounds it.

Lucks like England will have to pick themselves up in the coming matches and meet Le France in the final.

Mwehihihi...I prophesize that all the england flags on cars and bedroom windows will come down now.

can't blame Beckham for the penalty, just right for Bartez.

Hesky, best midfielder in the world my ASS, Gerrard why not boot it up the field ffs.

[-33ker 0]

I voted for The netherlands because they will win, only they haven´t played yet Tuesday they will win against Germany  

I don't think so...

Congratulations France!

[the editing man 0]

Stupid Beckham i saw a snaphot that the missed the goal  

Fame and money is rising to his head that is  

[quicksand 0]

For some time now I started alienating myself from football.I thought it`s just a bloody game where luck is all that matters.You can have a great team,strong defence and offence,well thought tactics and can still loose games that appear to be "in the pocket" with no aparent reason.

Just look at England-brilliant players from top teams and still hasn`t shown much from 1998(Kicked out by Romania from World Cup in `98;Kicked out by Romania from Euro 2000;Kicked out by Brazil in 2002)

On the other hand you have to love this upsidedown situatios

where everyone is confused as hell.As in this case some of the teams really seem to have some kind of an aura that forces the opponent to make childlish mistakes as we all seen tonight.

IMO unless you are brazilian you shouldn`t put to much feeling in the game,or you will be bound to suffer severe letdowns due to the unpredictable nature of the game (arguebly the same thing that makes it all that beautiful for some)

[Jinef 2]

Well I don't watch football normally but I saw this.

Missed the second two goals though as I was switching to watch Tea with Mussolini on channel four.

I suppose we win some and loose some.

[llauma 0]

It's nice to see that France won the game even though they propably didn't deserve it. France performed really bad but England played quite booring and extremely defensive. England has great players so I hope they will play more entertaining the next match against a defensive Switzerland.

[laulau 0]

hum.....i think that England vs france will be a tough game, with not a lot of goals. My heart says 2-1 to france, but it can also be 1-0 to england or a draw. the players know eachother very well. It's really difficult to predict something.

i knew it!!!!

seriously, it's very difficult to know which team was the best. Each goals was scored because of a foul. Both team didn't make the difference during plays (is it the right word? in french it's said "dans le jeu"). I guess we will really see how both team can play in their next game. The pressure was so big!!

It remembers me the last euro, where we won against Spain, Portugal and Italy each time in the last minute or with a golden goal. I hope this victory will remove the pressure from the french players that they could play better than they did tonight. And i hope for England that they won't be down after that. it would be great to meet again at the final (but i'm not sure if it's possible).

Anyway, IT WAS WHAT FOOTBALL IS ALL ABOUT!!!!

[Chris Death 0]

Not the greatest game, but one of the greatest endings.

As i'm from Austria, but owning french nationality too, france

is where my football heart is, therefore the end made me happy

Though, england gave a very good performance tonite, but

when there was this situation, where france lined up a powerplay at the penalty area (about min. 80 or so), i knew

it's just a matter of time, when france is able to find the

left center end-line of this bloody football field ... and so did

they - it's not that new that no more games last only 90 minutes, therefore noone can say - they wouldn'd have won

in 90"

Not france's best day but it's always good to believe in you

more than 90 mins - so did the french - and they didn't so for

their first time (as bravo and shash already mentioned - this

situation should be well known in england, especially in manchester).

looking forward to both team's next games

btw - in case england and france can meet up again during

this tournament, surely this won't happen to england again,

but france would play a different tactics than today aswell.

~S~ CD

[The Frenchman 0]

W00t!

[raedor 8]

i was wondering why the french didn't play more over the flanks... always when a player on the right or left got the ball he passed it back to the center. only one time henry went the left side down, and the way the ball was "stopped" then was a clear penalty for me...

[B-2-0 0]

Goddamnit !                    

france just got lucky

There is nothing lucky about Zinedine Zidan m8.

Quote[/b] ]Fekking Beckham didn't even but an ounce of effort into the penalty.

Quote[/b] ]Stupid Beckham

I see the 'Blame Beckham hit-squad' is back out in force :-/

One minute they wanna hang him for being sent off, next he is the dog's nutz and one penalty miss later he is back under the hammer again....typical.

I agree it wasn't his best penalty but shit happens.  You should be blaming Heskey, Gerrard and James before Beckham ffs.

Quote[/b] ]I prophesize that all the england flags on cars and bedroom windows will come down now.

No way!! Any real fan will back them all the way!!

Quote[/b] ]England played quite booring and extremely defensive.

England went there with a plan not to lose....it's the first game of the group stages and there is no need to do anything spectacular and risk losing the game.  Even though we didn't have much going forward, our defending was world class....Ledley King did a sterling job of keeping Thiery *world's greatest forward* Henry quiet.

We went to do a job and for 90 minutes we stuck to it. Once again we were let down by stupid mistakes by individuals

[denoir 0]

I don't think you should be so hard on your team. Overall they played better than the French whose whole game consisted of (unsuccessfuly) center front storming the very good English defence. Zidane is a great player but that says nothing about the French team.

France won because of luck and the achievements of one individual. That's enough to win one game, but hardly the entire tournament.

Anyway, after watching Croatia play today, I'm fairly sure that England will proceed to the quarters. There would have to be a radical change in Croatian quality of play to make any difference. The Swiss.. well they are not a serious threat to anybody really. They played some good defence today, but mostly it was because Croatia sucked so badly.

[Monkey Lib Front 10]

i would hardly call England boring with Rooney up Front, James could not have done anything about ZZ's Kick was at that height of where the wall as it jumps obscured trajectory.

Hesky he should not even be out in Portugal, Gerrard let the side down also.

[kevbaz 0]

Well i just got in form the pub, night spent dodging bottles....not the best thing to do of an evening.

we will still go through, we will hammer croatia and the swiss as they were both really poor and honestly cant see then doing much, there will be a england backlash on thursday, poor swiss....

and gerrard made 1 mistake, he was due one

[B-2-0 0]

There was really no need for James to go to ground at Henry's feet as he did imo. If he would have just stood up Henry would have had to do something special to score from that angle and at that speed.

Rooney played well, he just doesn't seem to be phazed, even by the world's greatest players....he needs to calm down a little though as i can see him getting sent off in an important match.

Ashley Cole had a good game also. He kept Pires well contained.

Why Emile Heskey is in the squad is far beyond me. I would have had Andy Cole before him any day.

[laulau 0]

i agree with you, the goal keeper went on Henry on a very bad way but the one to blame (if there's one) is the player who kicked the ball without seeing Henry was waiting for it.

I just watched again the best moments of the game, and now no matter if France looses the other games, it's like we win the euro!!

(edit: wrong spelling )

[-Ash- 0]

Fucking lucky French that's all I'll say... You did nothing whatsoever throughout the game.. How dare you come and say you deserved the win. We had you contained for 85 minutes then a piece of genious from Zidane from a free kick should have secured a draw for you...

Then a back pass and a penalty happened which only meant one thing..

We'll batter the Swiss and the Croatians and see you in the final and get our revenge don't worry...

There is no way we deserved to get beat.. We scared the shite outta you lot, and the first to score against you since last June..

Revenge is sweet  

[laulau 0]

@ June 14 2004,02:09)]How dare you come and say you deserved the win.

who said we deserved it??? it just happened.

both team had the same things to score during the game.

A free kick on both sides which gave a goal and a penalty on both sides. Our goal keeper stopped it, the english one didn't. Nothing to be angry at, it's just the game.

i'm sure England will win against Croatia and Switzerland.

The only important thing now is who will paly against England and France in quarters.

And if we meet in final, it will be a very different game.

[-Ash- 0]

Why Emile Heskey is in the squad is far beyond me.   I would have had Andy Cole before him any day.

I think the majority of Merseyside is with you on that one pal.. As a Liverpool fan I couldn't understand how he kept on getting ahead of others..  As I hate to say... Replacing Rooney with Heskey was a big say in the match..

As for Scoles for Hergeraves    Jesus....

[Chris Death 0]

I see this same way as laulau said;

Hey - England did also not too much to win that game, besides

the free kick leading to their goal.

How many 100% chances could you count for either sides then?

It's been a deserved draw with a bad end for England and a

good end for France, because of not ending in one. Both sides have put effort into the game, but real chances for lots of goals were missing for both sides.

And for those who didn't notice - Guys who know Barthez, also

know that he wasn't waiting soo long until he decided to push

the ball away just before the English forward has reached him.

More it's been his intension to make the forward smell a chance because the goalie looks injured - it's his own way to

get attention during a game - so don't say this has been a

100% chance.

~S~ CD

[-Ash- 0]

Well I don't understand you but bollox anyway..