“Some German papers moaned about Hurst’s goal and showed pictures which showed the ball on the line but not in the air. They moaned for 34 years and it never changed anything.”In another twist, Teddy Sheringham was brought down by the Finland goalkeeper Antti Niemi outside the penalty area, but the referee showed only a yellow card rather than red .”I think Teddy would have scored had the keeper not taken him out,” Keown said “We thought he might have been sent off but it wasn’t to be It is difficult away from home anywhere. But we passed the ball and looked like the best team out there.He added: “I look back on the captaincy as a proud day for my family and friends but I would have liked a win.”The former England midfielder Ray Wilkins was sure Parlour had scored, saying, “It looked as if it had crossed the line to me But England won back some pride. Had we played on a better surface we would have got the result we wanted.”.

Thordur Gudjonsson scored in the final minute here last night to wreck Northern Ireland’s unbeaten start to their World Cup qualifying campaign in Group Three. Thordur Gudjonsson scored in the final minute here last night to wreck Northern Ireland’s unbeaten start to their World Cup qualifying campaign in Group Three.
The Northern Ireland goalkeeper, Roy Carroll, came for a free-kick by Chelsea’s Eidur Gudjohnsen, but missed it, leaving Watford’s Heidar Helguson to head the ball over him and Gudjonsson nodded it into the empty net.Iceland have a formidable record at this tiny stadium, beating Russia here and holding France during their creditable Euro 2000 qualifying campaign. They were determined to register their first points after losing their opening two World Cup qualifiers but Northern Ireland, who have not won a competitive away game for five years, weathered their brief early flurry and began to pass their way back into the game.That good work was almost undone when Jim Magilton gave the ball to Thordur Gudjonsson 30 yards from goal. Iceland worked it to their top scorer, Rikhardur Dadason, but he shot weakly at Carroll.Gerry Taggart then missed an excellent chance. David Healy won a free-kick 30 yards out, Magilton flighted a low ball to the left of the area and Taggart controlled it but he stabbed it wide with his weaker right foot from only five yards out.The tide then turned Gudjohnsen forced a save from Carroll after 28 minutes and then shot wide as Iceland stepped up the pressure. Gudjohnsson earned a corner from which Dadason shot just too high.Northern Ireland were making no impression on Iceland’s defence and Birkir Kristinsson was untroubled in the home goal. At the other end Carroll remained busy, blocking a shot from Dadason before diving on the rebound.Something had to give; it was just galling for Northern Ireland that the decisive goal came so late.Iceland: Kristinsson; Helgason; Sverrisson, Hreidarsson, Vidarsson, Thordur Gudjonsson, Gunnarsson, Kristinsson (Gretarsson, h-t), Helguson, Gudjohnsen, Dadason (Sigurdsson, 62).Northern Ireland: Carroll; Lomas, A Hughes, Taggart (Williams, h-t), Murdock, Lennon, Johnson, Magilton, Healy, Horlock, Elliott (Gray, 82).Referee: M Merk (Ger)..

Portugal capitalised on two horrendous mistakes by the Netherlands here last night to dash the Republic of Ireland’s hopes of a helpful draw between Euro 2000’s beaten semi-finalists. Portugal capitalised on two horrendous mistakes by the Netherlands here last night to dash the Republic of Ireland’s hopes of a helpful draw between Euro 2000’s beaten semi-finalists.
A point apiece would certainly have benefited Mick McCarthy, but Portugal were in no mood to spurn the gifts that came their way. Both goals were eminently preventable, but if the first aberration by Marc Overmars was slightly excusable the second by Michael Reiziger was certainly not.The scene of the Netherlands’ 6-1 devastation of Yugoslavia, during Euro 2000 three months ago, failed to inspire the hosts who were a disjointed disappointment. Little of the blame could, however, be attached to Patrick Kluivert, scorer of a hat-trick against the Slavs. Between Portugal’s goals he did all he could to put the Netherlands back in the game.The Netherlands, who started with five Barcelona players but without a single member of their Rangers quartet, gave a debut to Chelsea’s Mario Melchiot at right-back. His mediocre evening had hardly begun when he was involved in an interesting discussion with the English referee, Graham Poll, over the legitimacy of Portugal’s opening goal in the 10th minute. Pauleta had been allowed to wriggle through unchallenged before sending Conceicao through to score.When Conceicao subsequently burst clear down the right, Frank de Boer only just succeeded in keeping his cross away from Pauleta whose deserved goal was scored in the 43rd minute, courtesy of Reiziger.

His howler was elementary, a careless square pass straight to Pauleta who gained a fortunate rebound off De Boer before wheeling to his right to crash a low drive past Edwin van der Sar. Portugal were then content to keep what they had.NETHERLANDS (4-4-2): Van der Sar (Juventus); Melchiot (Chelsea), F De Boer (Barcelona), Kocu (Barcelona), Reiziger (Barcelona); Overmars (Barcelona), Van Bommel (PSV Eindhoven), Davids (Juventus), Bouma (PSV); Seedorf (Internazionale); Kluivert (Barcelona). Substitutes: Talan (Heerenveen) for Overmars, 46; Vennegoor of Hesselink (Twente), for Kluivert, 64; Bosvelt (Feynoord) for Reiziger, 71).PORTUGAL (4-2-3-1): Quim (Braga); Secretario (Porto), Couto (Lazio), Jorge Costa (Porto), Dimas (Sporting Lisbon); Vidigal (Napoli), Bino (Sporting Lisbon); Figo (Real Madrid), Rui Costa (Fiorentina), Conceicao (Parma); Pauleta (Bordeaux). Substitutes used: Sa Pinto (Sporting Lisbon) for Rui Costa, 86; Simao (Barcelona) for Pauleta, 89; Meira (Benfica) for Vidigal.Referee: G Poll (England).. Craig Brown was forced to take a fan’s-eye view of the final half-hour of last night’s World Cup encounter here after being sent off by a fussy French referee for something he said.