It was a night Portugal will long remember.
In the most heartstopping game of Euro 2004 so far, the host nation beat England 6-5 in a penalty shootout on Thursday after a 2-2 tie in regulation time, becoming the tournament’s first semifinalist and triggering wild celebrations across the country.
For England, the evening turned bitter at Lisbon’s Stadium of Light when captain David Beckham sent the first penalty kick of the shootout over the crossbar.
”I have to go and get my heart checked it was so thrilling,” Portugal’s Brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said. ”This win, after everything that happened during this game, was truly spectacular.”
This was only a quarterfinal victory, but it turned the capital into a flag waving street party, with the central Avenida de Liberdade clogged with cars.
”During the penalties God was with us,” Portugal’s 19-year-old striker Cristiano Ronaldo said. ”We have to celebrate this moment. It was wonderful the way the people supported us from inside and outside the stadium.”
”Over the 90 [minutes] we were better than the English.”
The first semifinal is June 30 at Jose Alvalade.
Portugal will face either Sweden or the Netherlands. The other semifinal is on July 1 in Porto’s Dragao. The final will be played on July 4 in the Stadium of Light in Lisbon.
Portugal had more possession than England, and luck seemed to go their way.
Tied 1-1, England seemed to have won the match in the 90th when Michael Owen knocked a header off the crossbar. As it came down in the area, England defender Sol Campbell leaped near the goal line and headed the ball into the net.
However, Swiss referee Urs Meier disallowed the goal, ruling defender John Terry had pushed Portuguese goalkeeper Carvalho.
”The referee decided, you can’t do anything about that,” England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson said.
Eriksson was asked if Beckham blamed himself for the loss.
”I talked to the squad in the dressing room after the game,” Eriksson said. ”He [Beckham] might do that, maybe.”
England suffered a major blow when 18-year-old striker Wayne Rooney — he shares the tournament scoring lead with four — limped off in the 27th minute with what turned out to be a broken right foot. He suffered the injury after defender Jorge Andrade clipped his heel as they chased a loose ball.
Eriksson said the injury was similar to one Beckham picked up two years ago before the World Cup.
”He will be out for, I don’t know, maybe weeks, maybe months.”
Asked if Rooney would have helped, Eriksson replied: ”I can’t say that if Rooney was on the pitch we would have won. It is an excuse I don’t want to use.”
England went ahead 1-0 in the third minute as Portuguese defender Costinha failed to clear a long ball. Michael Owen swooped in and, with his back facing the goal, turned and lifted the ball with his right foot over the head of Portugal ‘keeper Carvalho.
Portugal’s Helder Postiga equalised at 1-1 in the 83rd, scoring on a header that went in over the outstretched hands of James. That forced extra time.
Portugal’s Rui Costa appeared to have scored the winner in the 20th minute of extra time, with a powerful shot from 18 metres that hit the crossbar on the underside and went behind James to make it 2-1.
England’s Frank Lampard tied the thrilling match 2-2 in the 25th minute of extra time, scoring after a corner kicked landed in the area. Lampard swirled and right-footed the ball into the net from six metres.
In news off the field on Thursday, Germany’s Rudi Voeller became the first coaching casualty of the tournament after Germany was ousted from the first round of the championship for the second time in a row.
Germany was beaten 2-1 by a second-string Czech Republic team on Wednesday, a crushing blow for the three-time European and three-time World Cup champions.
”I am stepping down,” Voeller told a news conference at the team’s training camp at Almancil on the south coast of Portugal.
”The [federation] president was surprised and wanted me to remain but I told him that it wouldn’t work.”
Ottmar Hitzfeld, fired by Bayern Munich at the end of last season, appears the leading candidate for the job.
Voeller’s resignation is a replay of Euro 2000 when the man he replaced, Erich Ribbeck, quit after the Germans finished last in their group.
Under Voeller, the Germans bounced back by reaching the final of the 2002 World Cup, losing 2-0 to Brazil. But the loss to the Czechs and ties with the Netherlands and Latvia means they have not beaten a European team in a major championship since they beat the Czechs in the final of Euro ’96. – Sapa-AP