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Ten-man England were sent crashing out of the World Cup on Saturday, losing a penalty shoot-out to Portugal after a controversy packed quarterfinal battle. Manchester United striker Cristiano Ronaldo scored the decisive spot-kick to hand Portugal a 3-1 shoot-out victory and shatter England’s dream of a first World Cup for 40 years.
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Luis Figo is no saint, as he proved against The Netherlands, and he plans to make David Beckham’s life hell when Portugal tackle England in Saturday’s quarterfinals. Figo was given the all-clear to play after Fifa ruled out further action for a headbutt on Holland’s Mark van Bommel in the second round match which saw 16 players booked and two from each side sent off.
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Ten-man Mexico scraped into the World Cup second round on Wednesday despite a chaotic 2-1 loss to a second-string Portugal. Mexico gave away a penalty, missed another and had a man sent off with 30 minutes left, but squeaked through when Group D rivals Angola were pegged back 1-1 by Iran.
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Jan Koller scored early, and Tomas Rosicky added two more goals on Monday to lead the Czech Republic to a 3-0 win over the United States in Group E of the World Cup. ”They punished us for every mistake we made,” US coach Bruce Arena said.
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Ecuador began their World Cup campaign with a precious 2-0 win over Group A rivals Poland on Friday. Carlos Tenorio broke the deadlock in the 24th minute with a stooping header and Agustin Delgado made the points safe with a simple tap-in 10 minutes from time. Poland enjoyed plenty of possession but were short on ideas in the final third of the pitch.