Recap of the first full day of the European Championships:
ROTTERDAM ? Suspect penalty decisions handed the Netherlands and Italy
lucky victories on a sizzling day of soccer at Euro 2000 on Sunday but world
champions France needed no help from referees as they zipped into top gear.
With no serious sign of an expected outbreak of hooliganism on the first
weekend of the three-week soccer festival, the talking points of the tournament
were all where they should be -- on the pitches of Belgium and the Netherlands.
The French strutted their supreme skills and overwhelmed a plucky but totally
outclassed Danish side 3-0 in Bruges with goals from Laurent Blanc, Thierry
Henry and Sylvain Wiltord.
But the Dutch and Italians rode their luck, both confessing they owed their
victories to the generosity of referees.
An exuberant, orange-bedecked, 50,000 capacity crowd at the Amsterdam
Arena was not enough to overcome the Czech Republic, who outplayed the
co-hosts and twice hit the woodwork in the second half.
The visitors' feeling that events were conspiring against them was reinforced
when Italian referee Pierluigi Collina decided Ronald de Boer had been dragged
down in the area by Czech captain Jiri Nemec two minutes from time.
Dutch captain Frank de Boer, Ronald's twin brother, stepped up to score the
penalty and give the Netherlands a 1-0 victory they had certainly not deserved.
Even former Dutch great Johan Cruyff, commenting on television, acknowledged
there had been no foul. Dutch coach Frank Rijkaard dodged questions about
the penalty but said his side's victory was due to "a little angel sitting on our
goal-line," preventing the Czechs from scoring.
SCANDAL
Czech coach Jozef Chovanec simply described Collina's decision as a scandal.
The controversial penalty echoed a similar one awarded in Italy's 2-1 win over
Turkey in Arnhem erlier in the day.
The match was poised at 1-1 with a spirited Turkish side giving the Italians a
harder than expected run for their money when Scottish referee Hugh Dallas put
himself firmly in the spotlight.
Italian striker Filippo Inzaghi fell in the area in an apparently harmless challenge,
again with the opposing captain, Turkey's Ogun Temizkenoglu.
Dallas pointed to the spot, Inzaghi scored to make it 2-1 in the 70th minute and
Italy held on to win. Antonio Conte had opened the scoring in the 52nd minute
but Turkey's Okan Buruk equalised nine minutes later with his country's first
ever goal at a European championship finals.
Inzaghi himself said later he thought the decision was a lucky one for Italy.
Angry Turkish fans pelted the pitch with plastic bottles and other missiles and the
incident provoked some minor fighting in the Belgian town of Genk where Italian
and Turkish supporters had been watching the match on a giant screen.
While most coaches thanked their lucky stars or bemoaned their bad luck,
French trainer Roger Lemerre was positively purring with satisfaction after
seeing his team take up where they left off after their 3-0 demolition of Brazil in
the World Cup final in Paris two years ago.
Seven of the same team started against Denmark and, with a sharp-looking new
attacking duo of Nicolas Anelka and Henry up front, France looked an even
better side than ever.
Blanc scored in the 16th minute of a match France dominated throughout and,
after Henry sealed victory with a great solo run over half the pitch in the 64th
minute, it was left to substitute Wiltord to wrap things up in stoppage time.
Zinedine Zidane was sublime in the French midfield and Danish coach Bo
Johansson could only watch in awe. "The French were fantastic," he said.
"When you sit and watch a player like Zidane, you just enjoy it."
London bookmakers agreed with Johansson. They installed France as the new
tournament favourites at 3-1 ahead of the Dutch at 10-3. |
