Football
Reuters 18y

ANALYSIS-Soccer-World-England struck down by penalty curse

By Mitch Phillips

GELSENKIRCHEN, July 1 - Anyone who writes off
penalty shootouts as a lottery should consider the fact that
England missed more of their four attempts against Portugal on
Saturday than Germany have in six shoot-outs over 30 years.

Portuguese goalkeeper Ricardo, the hero when his side beat
England the same way in the Euro 2004 quarter-finals, was again
the difference. He became the first man to save three in a World
Cup shoot out when he denied Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and
Jamie Carragher as England crumbled again from 12 yards.

Only man of the match Owen Hargreaves managed to find the
net for England and that was no surprise as he plays his club
football in the Bundesliga for Bayern Munich where it seems the
mentality is somewhat different.

David Beckham, whose blaze over the bar in Lisbon two years
ago set Portugal on their way, was unable to take part on
Saturday as he had been injured but his two midfield partners
stepped into the void, all too predictably.

It was hardly a shock when Lampard, England's nominated
penalty-taker in regulation time, had the first attempt saved as
he has spent the entire tournament struggling to connect with a
dead ball the way he does so consistently for Chelsea.

Ricardo dived left to save that one, got a hand but could
not stop Hargreaves' effort then dived left again to save
another weakly-struck effort by Gerrard.

Carragher did beat the keeper but went too early and Ricardo
used his psychological advantage well to push the defender's
second, straighter attempt onto the bar.

In Lisbon Ricardo followed up his save from Darius Vassell
by driving home the winning spot kick but this time he was not
needed as Cristiano Ronaldo completed the job.

England will no doubt argue that they should never have had
to suffer their recurring nightmare as, without a controversial
red card for striker Wayne Rooney just after the hour mark, they
might have ended a run of five winless competitive games against
the Portuguese spanning 40 years.

It was all too painful for England, who have now lost all
three of their World Cup shoot-outs - against Germany in the
1990 semi-finals, Argentina in the second round in 1998 and
Saturday.

As well as their Portugal defeat four years ago they also
lost in the semi-finals of Euro 96, to Germany again, with their
solitary success coming against Spain a round earlier in the
same competition.

In those six shoot-outs they have missed a remarkable 10 of
their 31 attempts - Germany have missed two out of 28.

Portugal, who missed two of their five on Saturday, had
never previously been involved in a World Cup shoot-out, their
7-6 Euro 2004 2004 Lisbon success over England their only
previous involvement in the cruellest denouement.

England find themselves on their way home after the
quarter-finals for the third successive major tournament.
Portugal can prepare for their first World Cup semi-final since
the glory days of Eusebio in 1966.

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