!And this time it wasn’t the fault of the England team; it was the more than dodgy referee that was in charge of the match. How many times can England get booked for tackles when the Portuguese made the same tackles throughout the match and got away with it for the most part, the referee was more than biased towards the hosts. The ultimate insult came in the 89th minute when Sol Cambell’s goal was disallowed for a push in the box by John Terry, which was totally bollocks, everyone agreed that the goal should have stood, including the linesman who signalled a goal, but the biased referee disallowed the goal regardless. Wayne Rooney suffered a broken bone in his foot after a challenge from Portuguese player, Jorge Andrade in the 27th minute, and could be out injured for up to four weeks, which isn’t such a problem now that England are out. But it shows how influential that Rooney was to the team, as England didn’t perform half as well after he limped off the pitch. Portugal played well, and deserved to win, I don’t begrudge them that, but it was the way that England were dumped out of the championship because of the terrible officiating in the game. Seems that its another year when England have been screwed over by useless officials, 1986 World Cup anyone? Its safe to say that my interest and no doubt most of the rest of England’s interest is over now in this championship. I really can’t blame anyone on the England squad despite having some dodgy sections of play; they defended well, and gave it everything and like myself will be heartbroken to go out in such contentious circumstances. The extra time and penalties should never of happened, if England lost fair and square I wouldn’t be moaning, but everyone knows that England should have won the game before the 90 minutes were up. UEFA should have done something about the refereeing in the Euro 2004 championship; to say that referee’s have been inconsistent is an understatement. At least one thing to take away from this tournament, England went further than the Germans, Italians and Spanish! Now that England are out of the equation, I really hope that the Czech Republic can go all the way and show the rest of Europe how football should be played as the general standard of play hasn’t been great in the 2004 championship from all teams.
Also while browsing the BBC website for reaction, I come across this, which gives the BBC’s opinion on how the England players performed, and I tend to agree, but that doesnt make me feel any better about our exit from the championship!
Onto something that isn’t even remotely football related, Jaguar (read: Ford) are regretting their decision to give Christian Klien a race drive this season over the already experienced Briton Justin Wilson, which was obviously to do with sponsorship from Red Bull deal that Klien brought in. It’s looking like Jaguar will also be losing the talented Australian driver Mark Webber to Williams as he has a clause in his contract if Jaguar don’t make into the top 6 teams in the constructors championship, he could leave the British based team, they are currently languishing in 9th position with only 3 points, only Minardi are lower in the championship, which says a lot about the Jaguar team this season.
