EURO 2004: England 1: France 2

The England-France football match had all the ingredients to be a exciting one. I was pretty pumped up to be able to watch this meet of all the big stars, many of them are famous for their world cup performance. The game started here at 00:45 AM and I thought I would go to sleep as soon as I find it boring. But I could not go to sleep even if I was pretty bored with the start of second half. The first half the battle was elegantly poised and the england goal was worth watching. It was initiated by a brilliant freekick of Beckham and Lampard's fine header. The game was loosing its attraction in the second half. Scholes and Owen were lacklustre in their performance. Trezeguet & Vieira had some near misses. Then Beckham missed the penalty at 72 minutes. Nobody likes to see mistakes from stars. Thats the time all were getting into my nerves and I was preparing to sleep. But something made me stay awake till the last. And surely Zidan stole the show. In the 91st minute he scored from a brilliant free-cick. Was the shock too much for England? Because the backpass to the goalkeeper from a defender (Gerrard) in the dying moments looked and proved to be suicidal. And I wonder whether Henry could score even if he was not fouled by James. The stadium was full of surprised French supporters and awe-struck English fans. Many like me went to sleep with a refreshing memory of a brilliant Football game between two of the worlds best teams.