1 July 2006, Arena AufSchalke, Gelsenkirchen. Portugal 0–0 England, after extra time. Portugal win 3–1 on penalties.
By Hamish McTavish
A Saturday night in the Schalke bowl, fifty-two thousand in, and a golden generation playing its last game for the Swede who had been leaving since the spring. Sven-Göran Eriksson’s last match. Luiz Felipe Scolari’s Portugal again. Ricardo in goal again. Wayne Rooney, who had gone off lame in Lisbon two years earlier, stayed on long enough to stamp on Ricardo Carvalho and walk. Cristiano Ronaldo, his club-mate, ran to the referee, took the shove, and winked at the bench on the way back. The Mail on Sunday, in the morning, would find the silver lining it had been saving: it all ends in tears… but at least there’s no more Sven. The News of the World had same old penalty pain. Both were true. The wink is the picture. The shoot-out is the score.
They had come as the side that was supposed to do it on home-continent grass, which is the certainty you pack when the golden generation is still the caption and the manager is already packed. Eriksson had reached three quarter-finals and had not made a semi. He had said, in other weeks, the things managers say about belief. He did not need a new line for Gelsenkirchen. The line was the squad: John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, David Beckham, Rooney. Owen Hargreaves, the one they had not wanted to love, would be the only Englishman to score from the spot. Paul Robinson was in goal because David James was not. Horacio Elizondo, of Argentina, had the whistle. He had sent Beckham off for Manchester United once, in another country, in another shirt. He would send Rooney off in this one.
Gelsenkirchen in July is a closed roof and a noise that thinks it is a semi-final. England had scraped a group and a last-sixteen. Portugal had Figo still, and Ronaldo already. Scolari had done this to them in Japan and in Lisbon. Third time is not a charm when the other man has the keeper. Eriksson’s last presser had the tone of a man who already knew the Sunday line. The golden generation had been a caption since 2004. Tonight it was a caption with ten men and a wink.
They kicked off anyway.
It was tight for an hour, the sort of quarter-final England always describe as a platform, and then it was a groin. Beckham went off injured just after the interval, Aaron Lennon on, the captain already a passenger in his last Eriksson night. Ten minutes later Rooney, wrestling Carvalho for a ball he was not going to keep, put his foot where the cameras would not forgive. Elizondo was looking at it. Ronaldo arrived. Rooney shoved him. The red came out. England had ten men for nearly an hour if you count extra time, which they would have to. Hargreaves ran the rest of the night as if he had been picked for this one job. Terry had a deflected shot that looped over. Hélder Postiga, on late, put one into the stand. Nil-nil after a hundred and twenty, the fifth time they had stood in this room since 1990.
Ricardo saved three. He was the first man at a World Cup to do that in a shoot-out. Lampard, the first English kick, saved. Hugo Viana, for them, saved by Robinson. Hargreaves scored, the only one. Petit missed. Gerrard, the captain’s stand-in voice, saved. Postiga scored. Jamie Carragher scored and was told to take it again and then was saved. Ronaldo walked up and rolled the last one in. Three-one. The wink had already done the morning papers. The Swede had already done the Sunday splash. Good riddance, dressed as tears.
Rooney had the stamp and the red and a conversation with Ronaldo in the tunnel that he later said was no issue, which is a footballer’s way of shutting a week. Ronaldo had the wink and the kick. Ricardo had Lampard, Gerrard, Carragher. Hargreaves had the night and the only goal. Beckham had the injury and the walk. Eriksson had three quarter-finals, no semi, and a Sunday paper glad to see the back of him. Scolari had the same opponent, the same keeper, the same ending. Elizondo had the red. Robinson had Viana and not the one that mattered last. The golden generation had the caption and not the semi. The Mail on Sunday had the line it wanted the next morning: at least there’s no more Sven.
They said golden. They said last chance. They said no issue in the tunnel. They said at least there’s no more Sven. If you still think it was only the wink, a funeral is only a Tuesday. The wink was a camera. The red was an hour. The three saves were the night they keep. They had been here in Lisbon. They will be here again, because this is what they do with a spot.
The film is up. FIFA still keep the stamp, the wink, the three saves, Ronaldo last. Do not review it. Watch the Swede’s last night end in the same keeper’s hands.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rkJT7ntUl4
Related reading
- Reffing disgrace — Lisbon 2004, same Scolari, same Ricardo, same sandy ending
- A cross that drifted — Shizuoka 2002, Eriksson’s first Scolari quarter-final
If the nights sit right, the shirts and the wall are at /shop.
FAQ
What was the score when Portugal beat England in Gelsenkirchen 2006?
Portugal 0–0 England after extra time; Portugal won 3–1 on penalties, on 1 July 2006 at Arena AufSchalke. Owen Hargreaves scored England’s only penalty; Ricardo saved three.
Why “at least there’s no more Sven”?
The Mail on Sunday splash after Eriksson’s last match: It all ends in tears… but at least there’s no more Sven.
Who was sent off?
Wayne Rooney, for stamping on Ricardo Carvalho; Cristiano Ronaldo’s wink at the bench became the morning picture.