England played so weakly in the 2nd half. I was muttering inside myself at about the 70th minute, if they are going to continue like that, they could forget the 1 goal lead. True enough.
Their play became so predictable. Whenever they reached mid-field, one of them would try to pump a long ball to Michael Owen hoping for some miraculous mistake on the part of Portugal. It happened so many times. And of course, each time, the Portugese got their defenders ready to head the ball back towards the English side.
I don't know what happened to them England. They looked tired. They started well in the first 20-30 minutes then faltered all the way down. They didn't chase the ball. I didn't even know what in the world Paul Scholes was doing with the ball! No surprise he was substituted eventually.
England deserved to lose that game. If they were able to beat Switzerland and Crotia in style in the last 2 matches, that style was sorely missing when they met Portugal.
And...Beckham. What the heck. He's missed one too many penalties. My view of him completely changed after this Euro2004.
Sad for England but only the best and consistent team should win! England clearly is not the one.