It was a brave performance in which England looked like the better side for a great portion of the match (maybe a little bias there but not much…probably) but ultimately they fell to an under-stength Portugese side missing two of their star players after that ridiculously refereed match against Holland left two of their first team picks with red card suspensions for the day.

England’s downfall came from the penalty spot again. What’s that now? 4 times out of the last 5 major competitions and twice to Portugal in 2 years? Ugh!

It’s the worst way to leave a cup competition but it’s also something the England national football team seems to make a habit of in recent years leaving us all to wonder what might have been if the whole match had been played with 11 a side.

That was ruled out after a Rooney sending off after a somewhat blatant stamp on the family jewels of a Portugese player midway through the second half which happened right under the referee’s nose.

England battled bravely and carved out more chances with 10 men than they did with 11 but ultimately it came down to penalty kicks again just like it did in Euro 2004…and just like in Euro 2004, Portugal won through after some expert goalkeeping from the Portugese goalie denied England 3 times leaving Owen Hargreaves as England’s only penalty scorer.

It was the best performance in the 2006 world cup by an England side which started off slowly and seemed to be getting better but it just wasn’t to be their day.

Tactically, one wonders whether a different manager might have taken a few more attacking chances and fired up an obviously hugely talented squad of players, not just today, but throughout the world cup but hey, it’s too late now.

Next time boys.  

Next time…

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