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Golden France tops Portugal on penalty kick in extra time
Posted: Wednesday June 28, 2000 06:44 PM
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- Zinedine Zidane struck a hotly contested extra-time penalty to give France a 2-1 semifinal win over Portugal and keep alive hopes of a historic World Cup-European Championship double. Zidane's 117th-minute golden goal was awarded after Portuguese defender Abel Xavier handled an angled shot from Sylvain Wiltord. The Juventus star stepped up and rifled the ball high into top corner to send French fans into raptures. "It was the knockout punch," Zidane said. Nuno Gomes had struck a breathtaking 19th-minute goal to give Portugal the lead but France came out with all guns blazing after half time and Thierry Henry equalized in the 51st minute. The match seemed to be heading to penalties when Xavier was penalized for hand ball. Austrian referee Guenter Benko was surrounded by furious Portugal players and match officials, holding up the penalty for several nerve-jangling minutes. After Zidane scored, Portuguese surrounded and barged match officials well after France began celebrating. "Soccer can be cruel," said French coach Roger Lemerre. Benko showed a red card to Portugal's four-goal hero Nuno Gomes after the penalty, and Luis Figo had already stripped his shirt and stormed off the field in disgust. "They just applied the rules," Lemerre said. "It was a great moment of refereeing." France was overjoyed to avoid penalties. "The Portuguese started well and then we got into our game by extra time," said French defender Bixente Lizarazu. "By then we were dominating and they only played on the counter-attack." Teammate Marcel Desailly already knows who he wants to face in Sunday's final. On Thursday, the Dutch play Italy in the other semifinal in Amsterdam. "I would like to play Italy. We have already played the Netherlands and many of our players have played in Italy so we would like to face them," he said. "Out objective was not to be in the final. It is to win the final," said Zidane. "It will be even tougher Sunday." France came into the championship trying to become the first world champion to become a European championship at the same time and continued on its quest because of the cool head of Zidane. Nuno Gomes gave Portugal the lead in the 19th minute. Sergio Conceicao robbed a lethargic Didier Deschamps of the ball and pushed it through to the Benfica striker, who quickly turned and rifled a 16-meter shot past Fabien Barthez. Not used to chasing a game, France was stunned. Apart from its Group D match against the Netherlands, when France fielded a reserve team having already ensured qualification, the world champion had never been behind in a Euro 2000 match. But France came back strongly in the second half. In the 51st minute, Nicolas Anelka got a ball seemingly in an off-side position, was allowed to urn around and pass back to Henry, who coolly slotted it past Vito Baia from 10 meters out. The French stifled the Portuguese sense of adventure with an overpowering defense and their superior physical stamina wore down the underdog. As the star of Zidane rose ever more during the match, the one of Luis Figo progressively dimmed. In the 90th minute on a rare Portuguese opportunity, a spectacular reflex save off Fabien Barthez on a header from Xavier kept the French going into extra time. "It was really tough for us," said Zidane. "The Portuguese were great." In sudden-death extra time, Zidane almost headed the French into the final after one minute but the ball went over. Defender Laurent Blanc did likewise after seven. Portugal survived and in the 110th minute a long shot from Sa Pinto just went wide. Both sides started out very hesitantly, keeping most players well behind the ball and crowding midfield as much as possible. It made combination play near impossible and playmakers Zidane nor Luis Figo had space to show off their skills. Playing with three defensive midfielders, France left too much creative responsibility on the shoulders Zidane, and Portugal had enough pace at the back to deal with the Henry-Anelka strikeforce. The Portuguese who had sparkled during their run into the semifinals were dour most of Wednesday night. Gomes' goal, for example, was the only Portuguese shot on goal in the first hour. The goal momentarily gave the Portuguese wings. They opened up play for Figo and Conceicao while Zidane was too often left on his own. Portugal started the second half even more conservatively, bent on proving it could win ugly too. But the French came pushing. Figo got a yellow card for hard tackle just after the equalizer and Dimas also got one for a ruthless tackle on Henry. Finally the game started living up to its billing, with Figo starting to move more freely and the French smoothly pushing the ball around. Zidane started using the newfound space to spin magic. A deep ball to Henry and a curling cross to Anelka deserved better than two botched attempts on goal. In the 77th minute, Vitor Baia pulled of an incredible save off a shot from Emannuel Petit from 20 meters out. Three minutes from time, Lilian Thuram weaved through the defense on the right, but amazingly no French forward was available to convert the pass from the defender when it trickled into the goalmouth. Portuguese coach Humberto Coelho had surprisingly left striker Joao Pinto and midfield battler Paulo Bento off the team. Both players had been expected to play after fine performances so far in Portugal's Euro 2000 drive. The team announcement an hour ahead of kickoff appeared purely tactical, since Coelho had declared all 22 squad members fit Tuesday evening. Bento had been expected to take prime responsibility for neutralizing French superstar Zidane. Instead Coelho chose Luis Vidigal and Costinha as the defensive midfield pairing. In place of Joao Pinto's incisive runs from midfield, Coelho preferred to keep Nuno Gomes as an out-and-out center-forward, while Conceicao was selected to play wide on the right wing. Abel Xavier returned as right back. French coach Roger Lemerre dropped his top scorer Djorkaeff, who has scored 26 goals for France. He twice hit matchwinning goals at Euro 2000 but made way for Real Madid striker Anelka. Anelka started France's first two matches but only made substitute appearances in the world champion's two most recent matches. Emmanuel Petit, back after missing two matches because of a knee injury, came in for Christophe Dugarry in midfield. Dugarry had broken his nose in Sunday's quarterfinal against Spain but had been ruled fit to play. Petit's inclusion gave France more possibilities to cover holes in midfield and limit the creative space for Luis Figo. French president Jacques Chirac was a guest of honor among the 50,000 fans at the king Baudouin. Lineups: Portugal - Vitor Baia; Abel Xavier, Dimas, Fernando Couto, Jorge Costa (91, Rui Jorge); Rui Costa (78, Joao Pinto), Luis Figo, Sergio Coceicao, Costinha, Vidigal (61, Paulo Bento); Nuno Gomes. France - Fabien Barthez; Lilian Thuram, Bixente Lizarazu, Laurent Blanc, Marcel Desailly; Didier Deschamps, Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit (87, Robert Pires), Zinedine Zidane; Nicolas Anelka (72, Sylvain Wiltord), Thierry Henry (105, David Trezeguet). Referee : Guenther Benko, Austria.
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