Well done Portugal.

they were definately the better team but that ref is going to need bodyguards and deserves to loose his international lisence for the biased calls he made. i suspect lisbon will experience some trouble unfortunately.
cheers


julian

 

I'd like a quiet word with the groundsman too!

A hell of a game by anyones estimate....

 

Im pleased for Portugal to see the host stay, but we were definately robbed by a bad decision, full stop end of story.

Some other dubious decisions, particularly round free kicks too.
oh well,

All we can hope is that the English fans manage to handle it with some dignity and without violence.

Personally, Im gutted.

 

Micheal for you own safety I suggest you stay in tonight. I think Lisbon is going to be like the Moss Side riots of 1981 tonight sadly.

That ref wants his head shooting (in my opinion). At the end of the day we should have won that match.

 

i think michael was at the match....
run michael run....
cheers


julian

 

Well done Switzerland. Looks like you managed to knock us out after all...

 

Great match.
England made the same mistake as against France: they pulled back too much and early (the 1-1 fell when 10 English were in the 18m!). In the modern football this has never worked. This is hard to say but who doesn't learn from his own mistakes doesn't deserve to go forward. In this case though both teams deserved to go in the next round.

I don't know what you can say against the referee. Maybe you should better look at the replays and read in detail the rules. The referee could have given a few more fauls and maybe show the yellow card more often but these are small points which haven't disadvantaged one or the other team. Considering the dramatic and the speed of the match not only I think, that the referee has done a bloody good job.
I'm now seeing the comments / analysis of the match from german and italian television.

 

titian,
it's more the disallowing of the english goal in the 90th minute that is the problem. who exactly was fouled? and if there was a foul why wasn't there a free / goal kick given?
also rooney's injury was mighty suspicious to me too.
still the way we were playing we'd have gotten creamed in the semis so at least we got put out of our misery 'early' and at the end of the day the better side won.
cheers


julian

 

It was poor refereing. The goal should have stood. But at the end of the day if we had won in normal time the Portugese would have had every right to have felt agrieved as they were the better team. Good luck to them and I hope to god the 'England' fans out there behave

 

Will we ever have just a small piece of luck?

 

My wife 5 minutes ago:

" Will you stop marching around the house shouting F***ing cheating Swiss B***ard ! The kids are trying to get to sleep."

Beckam should have at least hit the target though, even if it was saved. The Portuguese gave a few good lessons on how to take pens, especially the cheeky chip, it must be said. Lampards goal was instinctive and brilliant. The second half was just far to similar to the french game in my book. You could sense the 1 goal lead was never going to last . We were definately all hands to the pumps and repelling all boarders too many times for comfort. Sterling effort from the defence though. All four of them where brilliant, did David James shout at them even once though to get them out of his box, they where all over him and the 18 yard box looked like a pinball machine far too often.

 

Should have posted this yesterday but one of our clients is "in the know" and advises some very large bookmakes on the probable result. They aren't experts, they simply know officials and pay good money for information.

Tuesday , they simply said "word on the street is it will be 1-1 at 90 minutes (the betting breakoff point) and England will lose on penalties.

Scary huh?

 

I just saw 3 times the replay commented by a german referee on the german television and from an italian coach on the italian television.
You can see clearly that Therry holds with his right (?) arm/ elbow down the goalkeeper. The rules say that you cannot touch the goalkeeper in the 5 meters! The international referees consider the goalkeaper in his 5 meters as a holy cow. They also commented that in England no referee would whistle in this occasion. I would add: if you interpretate the rules on your own way good for you but don't expect that the rest of the world will also do so.

@Stumblin
Are those two players who missed their penalties Swiss?
Were those players who decided to play passive football in the second half Swiss?

 

Haha on the very sombre evening this is for England fans you have actually made me laugh. Thank you.

 

but surely if this was a foul then play should have been stopped and a free / goal kick given. especially as the decision wasn't mirrored by the linesmen. still, that's life isn;t it?
cheers


julian

 

No and no. But the ref who disallowed a perfectly acceptable goal in the dying minutes of the game was. A goal that would almost certainly have won the game.

 

Haven't felt that tense watching a game for a long time. My take on it:

- England didn't play very well
- Owen goal came out of nothing but a great instinctive finish
- Rooney's departure seemed to give the Portugese a big lift
- A lot of the England players looked knackered (having played only 2 days ago)
- Terrible defending for the equaliser
- Didn't see a great deal wrong with Sol Campbell's 'winner'
- Great Rui Costa goal in extra time
- England showed great character to pull the game back level
- Beckham penalty awful
- James didn't get near to making a save
- Vassell's not that bad - unlucky really
- Portugal's penalties (apart from Costa's) were ace

I've ocassionally seen 'goals' like Campbell's disallowed but not often - the linesman apparently gave it and he probably had the best view. Even Scot Alan Hansen thought England were robbed. Sven's attitude to this, however, was "The referee said it was a push and he makes the decisions" and we should maybe learn from his dignity.

Good luck to Portugal though - the disallowed goal wasn't their fault and they did play very well. The England team can leave with their heads held high though.

Matt.

 

Me 10 min's ago "You're going home! You're goin, Eng-ur-lund are going home"

 

Very one sided statements. Also the 2-1 could have been considered 'almost certainly have won the game' but you see in football lots of things can happen when you least expect it.

Matt,
'the linesman apparently gave it and he probably had the best view'
Wrong: Terry, who charged the keeper was behind Campbell from the linesman point of view so the linesman didn't have the best view. The best view was from behind the goal and you can see clearly what happened. Actually I think it is incredible good that the referee could see the attack (even if it was unluckly against England). If you notice during the whole match (which was quite fast) the referee was always near the ball!

I don't know what happened after Campbell's goal: the referee ran at the point where the faul was done (the cameras were focused on him) then suddendly he ran to the other side of the pitch. I thought that Portugal had kicked the free kick very quickly but not at the spot where the faul was done. This scene I would like to see from another view (not focused on the referee).