Per this story in the Sun
I know nothing about football but I watched the game anyway and that goal that was disallowed should not have been - the English footballers arm did hit off the goalie but it wasn’t intentional in any way - he didn’t foul him at all. I do think England was robbed, most definitely.
Not robbed.
Got their just desserts for playing badly.
And the English commentators were so biased it was sickening.
Good riddance.
England are such sore losers, it’s never ever their fault.
Always a scapegoat, whether it’s one of their own players (a la beckham in 98), or the ref or the pitch or whatever.
They, as a team are never to blame.
Because of that they don’t deserve to win anything.
I watched the game with French commentary, and even they said that the goal would not have been disallowed in the English Premiere league, so in a way they thought it was an incorrect call. Robbed? In one way, yes, but Portugal played better in the second half and in the two overtimes - I’d say England got pretty lucky to force the penalty kicks in the first place, though the goal that made it 2-2 was a nice one.
I’m sure the English fans will grumble, and I wanted them to win, but you have to admit in a close game like this the home team usually is going to win it, especially in soccer, er, football. England had to take the game away from Portugal and couldn’t do it.
Cheers, Powers
There’s quite a discussion going on in the last two pages of this thread.
I agree that we weren’t ‘robbed’, but the rest of your post is factually incorrect.
World Cup 2002 - knocked out by Brazil, and anyone looking for a scapegoat could have chosen Ronaldinho’s arguably fluky free kick. But from what I remember everybody accepted that we played badly and were just outclassed.
Euro 2000 - England go out in the first round having lost two games and are widely acknowledged by English observers to be one of the weaker teams in the competition, no excuses offered.
English commentators, while not as neutral as they once were, are exemplars of fair-mindedness compared to those of some other nationalities. ITV are worse than the BBC in this respect, but even Clive Tyldesley immediately praised Rui Costa’s goal last night (and it was a fantastic goal). But c’mon, you can’t watch a big England game with English commentators and be surprised if they show a little bias. I have seen highlights of Scotland games in which Archie MacPherson, or whoever does them these days, gets mightily excited when they score. Biased?
I seem to remember that “heat” is always a factor whenever England play anywhere hot.
Was Euro 2000 not the Phil Neville scapegoat era?
How come the commentators took until just after the first half of extra time to say that they think the goal was chopped of because John Terry that fouled Ricardo? Everyone that I watched it with spotted it on the first replay, didn’t take us 20 odd minutes to think about it. Shocking commentating.
It was funny seeing Iain Wright almost in tears after the game.
Also;
Archie MacPherson is well known for being a complete arse and a shit commentator, so it’s no surprise he’s biased.
Hmmm…
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Sol Campbell scores in the closing minutes of a tied match in international competition, and the goal is disallowed for incidental contact between an England player and the goalie.
Oh, and astro- I imagine the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish would be quite surprised to hear they were beaten by Portugal…
A few people having a go at Phil Neville for giving away a penalty does not make the entire nation “sore losers”. Phil must have wished he was Scottish, because then nobody would have criticised him, eh?
Everybody saw it, not everybody thought it was a foul. The commentators were reacting to the referee’s explanation of his decison later on. I didn’t think it was a foul, but it did break the unwritten rule that you’re not allowed to touch the goalie, or look at him in a funny way, so I wasn’t too surprised when the goal was disallowed. Anyway, we didn’t deserve to win over the 90 minutes, so I can’t get that worked up about it.
Am I going to be the only one to point out that the UK weren’t playing??
Oops, no. Really Not All That Bright got there first.