Definitely the most exciting match I've ever watched. The match was fast-paced with Portugal pressurising England most of time with their attacking waves (but often with harmless finishes) and the occasional but dangerous England counter-attacks. As early as the 3rd min, my heart sank when Owen scored a goal from a Portuguese defence deadly mistake. Tried reassuring myself that there was still much time for the Portugal to score an equalizer. One thing I like about Portugal is they, like Brazil, plays attacking football (Conversely the reason why I dun like England). And attacking football is always entertaining to watch. Especially with the likes of Ronaldo, Gomes, Figo, Deco and later Simao, Postiga and Costa. Ronaldo is soooo cute and cheeky with his dives and all his so marvellous skills to fake Cole. Erm did I mention he was everywhere on the field? Right flank, left flank, attacking at England's side of the field, defending on Portugal's side... I'll hate him if I'm an England supporter but I'm not. Though I still think he really did kelong in the Greece match.
Back to the topic, when Portugal din score the much-needed equalizer for as long as the 80th min I nearly gave up hope. But as always, the ball is round and God is fair. The better team should not be out. Hence after Figo was substituted by Postiga and the latter scored the long-awaited equalizer in the 83th min, I nearly screamed and risked waking the whole family out. Somehow I had the hunch that a goal was coming cos my face was nearly stuck to my TV for that particular minute. The same hunch came back to mi in the 89th min when Beckham took the all-dangerous freekick. I had no time to heave a sigh of relief when the ball hit the bar and then Campbell kicked the ball inside the net.
At the same time, I saw the foul on Ricardo (there was really a foul! go see the replay! see the pic above! the referee was fair!) and heard the whistle. It was the most nerve-wrecking 10 seconds (the 1st scary moment of the match - there were 3). When I tot England was going to win and the goal ended up being disallowed, it was a rollercoaster ride for mi. Except mine was low to high while most others were high to low.
Silver goal in play next. When Rui Costa (dinno he was Batistuta old partner, no wonder I found him so 'Bati' from the start) scored the beautiful 25 metre goal straight into the net I thought this was it. Then I started praying that Portugal would hang on to this lead for the remaining 10 min but they jus couldn't do it. Lampard (I hate this guy, he scored in France match too, always ruined my hopes) scored the equalizer 5 min later (2nd scary moment). I almost wished to teleport myself to Portugal now and kill all the Portugal defenders and Ricardo for not defending well. And at the same time kill the Euro 2004 officials for still using the old Silver Goal rule instead of the Golden. I seriously din wan the match to go into penalty shoot-outs cos I tot James was a better goalie than Ricardo and the commentators sort of tot Portugal would not handle penalties as well. Puss kept assuring me otherwise and Beckham would miss penalty. He was damned right. When I saw Beckham stepping forward to take the 1st penalty somehow I knew he was gonna miss it. And he did. Did it in France and again now. High up. And being the unsporty man, he blamed it on the grass. Why din he blame the miss on his nerves? As far as I noe, the rest of the penalty takers had no problem with the grass. When I tot Rui Costa the man who gave the beautiful long shot goal would have no problem with a nearer penalty, he proved mi wrong. My heart started to pump like it's gonna run out of my body cos any saves or misses from one side would cost that side to be out (3rd scary moment and the longest too). After the 5 shots, the sudden death penalty started to be in play. Oh wat a daring penalty by Postiga! Cheekily flipped the ball in the centre and let it bounced slowly in while sending James the wrong way. And the highlight was of cos the bare-handed save by Ricardo when he guessed Vassell's shot correctly. I was all ready to eat my words about shooting him earlier when he surprised mi next by taking the penalty shot himself! I was puzzled for 1 second when I couldn't spot any red shirts taking penalty. And wat a penalty that was. James guessed the right way but still couldn't save the beautiful goal that went high up in the corner of the net executed by the all-confident Ricardo.
Ricardo's the man. Scolari too. I am now sure that Scolari is England's jinx. (And all Ronaldos too). I was so overwhelmed with the excitement of the match that despite being extremely tired I jus couldn't sleep. This was certainly not for the faint-hearted.
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