Great job

Middle finger to fair play

Those Portuguese were diving all over the place again - most notably Ronaldo and Pauleta - and Larrionda was never fooled. He never showed a card either. And that's were I feel he let us down. The Portuguese deserved to lose, but they deserved some real cautions as well. In that respect they got away with it again. This was the third match in a row were they played so negatively, showing their middle finger to fair play. Ronaldo was crying when they had lost the game. The Portuguese should feel like he was having them on for a change.

Penalty

During the break and after the match the Portuguese protested the penalty Larrionda had conceded to the French. Indeed it was a so-so situation that preceded it. Henry - in a quite hopeless position in the box - turned quickly and made sure he tripped over Carvalho in the process. It was not a dive, but he could have evaded Carvalho's challenge quite easily. It was a correct penalty though. Carvalho never struck the ball, but did make contact with Henry's foot. Zidane scored from it. He put just enough power in his well-placed shot to make it go in, but Ricardo - penalty specialist - got quite close again to stopping it.

Drastic action

There was another call the Portuguese protested heavily. Miguel went down with Malude close to him. The Portuguese were quite certain this required some drastic action by the referee. Larrionda thought differently and a bit of a row evolved that was (again) kept from us by the German director. Replays showed there was no contact at all. Miguel was substituted nevertheless. Strange, but then again this may have been an action by the Portugal manager to discredit Larrionda. The way he comported himself towards the ref it wouldn't surprise me. This may be a far-fetched theory but that's what you get from play-acting so much: people just don't trust you anymore.

Elated

It was clearer then ever in this match the Portuguese team have a problem finishing. They do put the dangerous crosses in, but there's nobody with enough skill and confidence to try and score from them. They have to resort to dives instead, hoping for a free-kick or a penalty or for a player to be sent off. It didn't work for them this time, and I think that - apart from the Portuguese maybe - the whole football-loving world will be elated with the fact.

Wimbledon
The French never played at their best though. Barthes fumbled with the ball, Abidal looked plain clumsy and Henry too slow to react. Zidane as well was quite static. I heard there's some debate about the grass in Wimbledon - they supposedly use a slower variety this year - so why shouldn't that be an issue here. The ball seemed to stick to the pitch in this match.