World Cup 2006 Game 2 France takes on Portugal
From Benny:
5 July 2006
PORTUGAL 0-1 FRANCE
Zidane 33 (Pen)
The Portuguese defence got caught on a longball out of defence, Malouda,
probably because he was being shadowed by the brilliant Miguel, wasted the
opportunity by snatching at his shot. Barthez flapped at a tame Deco effort but
no one was on hand to take advantage. Just past the half hour mark Malouda
dribbled his way past a couple of Portuguese players before giving a reverse
pass to Henry and he made the most of Carvalho's clumsy challenge as he turned
inside the defender to win a penalty. Up stepped Zidane to blast the ball into
the bottom left corner. Henry wasted a good opening with a poor finish and
Ricardo, like slap-head Barthez, made hard work of a tame long range shot.
The French should have finished off Portugal on the break early in the second
half but Zidane screwed up a pass to Henry with the striker open in the box.
Les Blues made no concerted attempts to attack probably confident in the
knowledge that Portugal's strikers would have problems scoring in the MLS &
J-League let alone in the World Cup but with prize clown Barthez in goal there's
always a chance. He dropped an almighty bollock when he scooped a Ronaldo free
kick high in the air with both hands but Figo bailed him out by heading over. In
injury time Thuram fell under a challenge from Postiga when they battled for a
longball but Meira smashed it into row Z.
After last night's classic both teams served up a magnitude of shite. As far as
Portugal are concerned good riddance to bad rubbish. One goal in three games
in the knockout stages speaks for itself and their part in the disgraceful match
against the Dutch cannot be overlooked. I expected more from Scolari, especially
given the way Brazil played in 2002 and Portugal in 2004 but I guess, given the
abysmal quality of the squad he had to work with, surely one of the worst teams
to ever play in a World Cup semi-final, he did well to get them this far.
Ronaldo was unmercifully booed by the French, presumably because people thought
he was disingenuous in his comments over the Rooney red card and because he
continues the long tradition of simulation that plagues Portuguese players
(Greeks and Turks are equally as bad). Ronaldo and Postiga should have been
booked for diving in the box.
Zidane looked exhausted after 60 minutes, as did many of the other players which
makes Sunday's midfield battle all the more intriguing. Gattuso and Pirlo can
keep going for 90 minutes and beyond, can Vieira and Makelele? Unfortunately for
Italy Saha is out of the final having picked up his second yellow of the
knockout stages which means Trezeguet will play some part and we all know what
happened last time he played against Italy.
Attendance : 66,000
Assist : Henry (won pen)
http://soccer-europe.com
Chat room : http://www.lhcw.net/WorldCup
Rss feed : http://soccer-europe.com/RSS/News.xml
SO Saturday Germany and Portugal and the BIG game:
France versus Italy. In Euro 2000 France 2 Italy 1
ALLEZ LES BLEUS!!
5 July 2006
PORTUGAL 0-1 FRANCE
Zidane 33 (Pen)
The Portuguese defence got caught on a longball out of defence, Malouda,
probably because he was being shadowed by the brilliant Miguel, wasted the
opportunity by snatching at his shot. Barthez flapped at a tame Deco effort but
no one was on hand to take advantage. Just past the half hour mark Malouda
dribbled his way past a couple of Portuguese players before giving a reverse
pass to Henry and he made the most of Carvalho's clumsy challenge as he turned
inside the defender to win a penalty. Up stepped Zidane to blast the ball into
the bottom left corner. Henry wasted a good opening with a poor finish and
Ricardo, like slap-head Barthez, made hard work of a tame long range shot.
The French should have finished off Portugal on the break early in the second
half but Zidane screwed up a pass to Henry with the striker open in the box.
Les Blues made no concerted attempts to attack probably confident in the
knowledge that Portugal's strikers would have problems scoring in the MLS &
J-League let alone in the World Cup but with prize clown Barthez in goal there's
always a chance. He dropped an almighty bollock when he scooped a Ronaldo free
kick high in the air with both hands but Figo bailed him out by heading over. In
injury time Thuram fell under a challenge from Postiga when they battled for a
longball but Meira smashed it into row Z.
After last night's classic both teams served up a magnitude of shite. As far as
Portugal are concerned good riddance to bad rubbish. One goal in three games
in the knockout stages speaks for itself and their part in the disgraceful match
against the Dutch cannot be overlooked. I expected more from Scolari, especially
given the way Brazil played in 2002 and Portugal in 2004 but I guess, given the
abysmal quality of the squad he had to work with, surely one of the worst teams
to ever play in a World Cup semi-final, he did well to get them this far.
Ronaldo was unmercifully booed by the French, presumably because people thought
he was disingenuous in his comments over the Rooney red card and because he
continues the long tradition of simulation that plagues Portuguese players
(Greeks and Turks are equally as bad). Ronaldo and Postiga should have been
booked for diving in the box.
Zidane looked exhausted after 60 minutes, as did many of the other players which
makes Sunday's midfield battle all the more intriguing. Gattuso and Pirlo can
keep going for 90 minutes and beyond, can Vieira and Makelele? Unfortunately for
Italy Saha is out of the final having picked up his second yellow of the
knockout stages which means Trezeguet will play some part and we all know what
happened last time he played against Italy.
Attendance : 66,000
Assist : Henry (won pen)
http://soccer-europe.com
Chat room : http://www.lhcw.net/WorldCup
Rss feed : http://soccer-europe.com/RSS/News.xml
SO Saturday Germany and Portugal and the BIG game:
France versus Italy. In Euro 2000 France 2 Italy 1
ALLEZ LES BLEUS!!
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