LISBON, 14 June 2004 — Two Zinedine Zidane goals in stoppage time gave champions France an amazing 2-1 victory over an England team that seemed set for a major upset at Euro 2004 yesterday.
Zidane scored from a direct free kick in the first minute of three minutes added on and then scored with a penalty with almost the last kick of the game.
England had taken the lead in the 38th minute with a superb Frank Lampard header from a David Beckham free kick, ending the French run of 11 matches without conceding a goal.
France mounted wave after wave of attacks in the second half of a high quality game but it was England who came closest to scoring until the final minutes.
Barthez made a superb save from a Beckham penalty in the 73rd minute after Mikael Silvestre tripped 18-year-old England striker Wayne Rooney as he surged into the area.
Toothless Croats Unable to Break Down 10-Man Swiss
Croatia were held to a 0-0 draw by Switzerland in their opening Group B clash despite facing 10 men for 40 minutes in a poor match that was more memorable for the eight yellow cards handed out.
The Swiss will be happier with the result after midfielder Johann Vogel was sent off for a second bookable offense in the 50th minute but it was they who threatened to break the deadlock rather than Croatia as the Croats failed to muster a single shot on target in the remainder of the match.
Swiss coach Jakob Kuhn was understandably the happiest of the coaches. His Croat counterpart Otto Baric was far from happy. Croatia striker Dado Prso moaned that it could have been different if Switzerland had remained at full strength.
Vogel got his marching orders in the 50th minute when he brought down Tomo Sokota and right under referee Lucilio Batista’s eyes the 27-year-old PSV Eindhoven midfielder kicked the ball away after the freekick was awarded against him.
Ivica Mornar was the next player to go into the book as he was yellow carded for diving in the area bringing the number of yellow cards to seven and red’s to one after just 53 minutes of the match.
Sokota had a good chance to finally draw blood as Sokota fed by Niko Kovas turned inside a defender outside the area but his shot from 15 meters out sailed over the bar.
The match reached a nadir when Swiss keeper and captain Jorg Stiel missed a backpass and had to race back to stop it going into the goal, literally stopping the ball with his head. He was to receive the eighth yellow card minutes later for dissent.
The Swiss put together their best move of the match in the 77th minute ending with Benjamin Huggel’s rasping shot from 30 meters out being bundled away for a corner in unorthodox fashion by Croatia keeper Tomislav Butina.
Both had started brightly as Mornar’s sweetly struck freekick was well-taken by Swiss goalkeeper Jorg Stiel and then three minutes later Swiss playmaker Hakan Yakin forced Butina into a save with a shot from outside the area.
