mindless ramblings

England vs Portugal
The hex strikes again! For the third major tournament in a row, England have gone home thanks to a penalty shootout. This time, Chelsea’s Frank Lampard and Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher all missed from the spot while Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo scored the final penalty to guarantee Portugal’s spot in the final four. The two teams pretty much cancelled each other in the first half, until a moment of madness by Wayne Rooney got him sent off, and England were down to 10. David Beckham also left the field due to injury… it’s probably the last World Cup game he will ever play. He was in tears sitting on the sidelines. England stubbornly held on though, and Portgual never really looked scoring… especially after Luís Figo went off. England end their reign under Sven-Göran Eriksson with another defeat by a team led by Luiz Felipe Scolari… too bad for them!

Brazil vs France
France scored only one goal, but it was a crucial one as it was enough to beat Brazil. The reigning world champions went out tamely, with their all-star forward line misfired and spluttered through the whole game. It was left to Thierry Henry to finish off a wonderful Zinedine Zidane set piece to ensure that we will see a new world champion on July 9th. I would have expected Brazil to have tried hardly, but they didn’t get into gear until it was too late. Ronaldinho had a great chance with a minute left from a free kick, but he put it just over. They’ll come back even stronger in 2010 though… you know it.