Unlucky England crash out of Euro quarterfinals

World Cup '90, Euro '96, World Cup '98, now Euro 2004 – unlucky England endured the pain of their penalty hex again last night as they crashed out of the European championships.

That infamous list of great players who have missed crucial championship penalties – Waddle, Pierce, Southgate, Ince, Batty – now contains the names Beckham and Vassell after last night's drama.

For Portugal, the semi-final – for England, the break-glass-in-case-of-defeat excuse that the refereeing was awful. For England fans, this most thread-worn of footballing axioms was reinforced by Urs Meier's officiating. His decision to disallow Sol Campbell's 90th minute header plunged the game into extra time, and ultimately a penalty shootout.

The Three Lions had chased the Portuguese relentlessly and might have taken the game through sheer will and determination alone.

Sven's men sat back on a lead which came through Michael Owen's opportunistic strike in the 3rd minute. Tottenham's Helder Postiga levelled on 83 minutes and the game was thrust into extra-time. Rui Costa thought he had clinched the win in the 110th minute, but Frank Lampard equalised five minutes later. Before a UK television audience of some 24 million, England went on to lose the penalties 6-5.

England's quality, palpably satisfying in the Croatia game, was so much moonshine in Lisbon's Stadium of Light. In normal time, England lacked invention and creativity on the ball and as the game wore on they defended in depth, inviting the Portuguese forward. The loss of Wayne Rooney with a foot injury on 27 minutes further blunted the England attack.

The midfield, unbalanced in the absence of a defensive minded player, was forced into defence for much of the game – negating the creative thrust of Beckham, Lampard, Scholes and Gerrard. Time and again speculative long balls were launched up to the undersized Owen and Vassell.

England were not playing well, but with luck their determined resistance could propel them into the last four - luck which was tested in the 90th minute.

A Beckham corner was headed onto Ricardo's bar, the ball ricocheting high into the air. With John Terry and Sol Campbell waiting to pounce, Ricardo scrambled across to deal with the danger. Campbell headed home, but Urs Meier ruled that there had been a push.

Frank Lampard said afterwards: "I think a lot of the lads are struggling to come to terms with what has happened.

"The linesman gave the goal from Sol but the referee overruled and I don't understand that. I don't know how he could see because he was a long way away. And that was a big decision.

"I wouldn't say we feel robbed because the Portuguese played very well, but that decision cost us.

"We showed great character and we thought Sol's goal should have counted. But you have to give the Portuguese credit, it was a great game for them and I wish them luck in the semi-finals."

Today, Sven-Goran Eriksson said that the players could be proud of their performances.

"I think we did justice to ourselves in the tournament and lost on penalties after extra time. I think the players should be proud of themselves and I hope the fans are proud of them," he said.

"If I was to pick the squad for the World Cup qualifiers tomorrow, I would pick the same squad, with maybe Rio Ferdinand coming back and perhaps a few others.

He added: "I believe the players and squad did what they had to do, but we did not quite do enough to win and I'm sorry for that.

"All players did an extremely good job. In three and a half years we have lost three competitive games."

Eriksson also gave his backing to captain David Beckham, who has come in for criticism in the media for a series of underpar performances. Despite missing a crucial penalty last night, and one against the French that might have killed the game off, Sven said he had no doubts that Beckham would continue as a captain – and a penalty taker.

(gmcg)