England v Portugal

So England made it to the quarter finals without even getting out of first gear, the worry is that that`s the only gear we have!. But on Saturday we step up against one of Europe`s finest, Portugal. Having already beaten us in 2 major competitions in this millennium it`s about time we gave them a taste of their own medicine. In the past however the teams have met a total of ten times, England winning three and Portugal winning 3 (although one was on penalties). I don`t have the patience of Zippy so here is a run down of the bigger games that we have played Portugal in. Starting in 1966, Portugal where our opponents in the semi-final stage of the competition, a nice 2-1 victory made sure we were in the final. The England goals coming from Bobby Charlton. In Mexico 1986 we played them in our opening group game, and as England usually do in opening world cup games we lost 1-0 but we did still make it through and Portugal went out as they lost the next 2 group games. Next up was Euro 2000, and what a great start it was! goals from Scholes and McManaman put us 2-0 up and we were cruising, then Figo struck a screamer and Pinto made it 2-2, and as we all know Gomes made it 3-2 and they went on to win it. Euro 2004 came around and in the quarter finals we were against the host nation in Lisbon. After 120 minutes it was 2-2 and penalties loomed. Rooney had already gone with a broken metatarsal. We all lived in hope that we could win, but I think we all knew really, and out we went. Recently Portugal has the upper hand on us, but without Deco and Ronaldo not 100%, we have an excellent chance to make it to the semi-finals. Lets hope that we can be proven right and that we will be the ones against Brazil or France. Thanks goes to Millers_4Eva for this article.