Holland 4 France 1
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Holland were hot and dynamic.
But France got back into the game for 44 seconds.
Yes, the French were outplayed, pulverised, smashed, humiliated. But they got back into the game for 44 seconds after right back Willie Sagnol hit a killer low cross.
Hamburg centreback Mathijsen could have reached the ball but it looked as if he was scared of scoring an own-goal, so he left it and Thierry Henry touched the ball past Edwin van der Sar for 2-1.
As the BBC showed us replays of that goal, with Henry was just about level with the last man, Holland hit back, and when the director cut back to the live action, Arjen Robben flew down the left and fired his shot high inside Coupet’s near post. Henry scored, Robben made it 3-1 only 44 seconds later.
What a fabulous goal by the brilliant Oranje !
And how Arsenalesque are France, conceding 44 seconds after they scored ?
A Ruud van Nistelrooy header floated towards the post and Coupet just grabbed the ball as it was about to hit the post.
In 92, Wesley Schneider turned sweetly outside the D and hammered a dipping shot in off the underside for 4-1.
Holland beat Italy 3-0 in their first game and we wondered if they could sustain that form. And they did : two games, two wins, seven goals, six different goalscorers. Van Nistelrooy, Sneijder, van Bronckhorst, Kuyt, Van Persie, Robben, Sneijder.
Have Holland peaked too soon? Maybe. But this is Marco van Basten’s last month in the job and that gives them an urgency other teams lack. They are equipped to beat Sweden in the quarter final, if they play the Swedes, who face Spain in Innsbruck at 5 pm today.
Robben has only started 14 games for Real Madrid but he is a hypnotic winger who seems to measure his options while cruising quickly. His command of angles makes him a little bit like Johan Cruyff, very incisive and compelling.
France coach Raymond Domenech is a cowardly control-freak who thinks he can play 4-3-3 with a team of old men.
Attempting that, he turned Franck Ribery into a half-back and had him skirmishing and doing things that Lassana Diarra should have been doing. Ridiculous ! Ribery is not Flamini. If you want somebody to do a Flamini job, pick Flamini ! If France were not so old, they would be defending 20 yards fiurther up the pitch .They should find a younger manager with a bit of bottle.
By picking so many veterans, France have given Spain, Croatia or Holland a chance to do something historic.
At half-time in the Italy-Romania game my best friend Doug phoned from Antibes and read out the predicted French line-up from Nice Matin.
Neither of us liked that team and Doug was adamant that a side with Govou-Henry-Malouda up front would lose. But neither of us thought that eleven would actually start the match. Later I read The Guardian and their predicted team was identical to that in Nice Matin and that was, in fact, the line-up which started the game.
Within 4 minutes, Makelele smacked Kuyt in the face with his shoulder and German ref Fandel warned Makelele but did not book him. Once, long ago, Makelele was a subtle hatchet-man, a bantamweight judo master who rarely resorted to karate. But now his violence is obvious and we can see the damage he inflicts – with his fists, forearms and elbows – without needing action replays.
After 9, Kuyt headed in Van der Vaart’s inswinging corner while Malouda was holding him with both hands but not watching the ball. In each game, Malouda finds a new way of being a plonker.
In their first game against Romania, France looked so old it was like watching a village cricket team where the youngest player is 60. Now, in Berne, the writing was on the wall in 40-foot neon letters and BBC commentator John Motson asked, “Is it one tournament too far, Mark, for the likes of Thuram, Makelele and Henry?”
For Motson to say that after 20 minutes, France must be bad.
Govou and Malouda had shots saved, Fandel booked Makelele for smacking somebody in the face with first one hand, then the other.
At half-time Doug phoned again and he reckoned France would equalise and as we were talking we saw Robben about to replace midfielder Orlando Engelaar, for the second half. As soon as I saw Robben, I said, “Two nil, game over.”
In 49, Ooijer threw himself at Henry’s shot and the ball hit his arm but Fandel was right not to give a penalty. Two minutes later Malouda’s flick played in Henry, who lobbed five feet over the crossbar. And then Robin van Persie came on for Kuyt and knocked in Robben’s cross and then Henry made it 2-1 and Robben hit back in 44 seconds for 3-1 and bang!bang! man Wesley Sneijder put oranje icing on the cake in stoppage time.
Fantastic game, I loved it.
Oranjes 4 Bleus 1.
Italy-Romania had been lively at 5pm, a pulsating first half with the Italians playing with far more urgency, after Donadoni made five changes. Di Rossi sprayed the ball to fullbacks Grosso and Zambrotta, who crossed some great balls. Luca Toni headed home powerfully in first-half stoppage time. A legit goal but the flag went up.
Second half, after 51, I already wanted Cassano in for Del Piero. In 55, a mistake, a goal by Romania. Zambrotta headed a ball back to his keeper but Mutu, reading the play, got there first to hit the ball past the advancing Buffon.
In 56, a left wing corner, Juventus centreback Chiellini knocked down, and Panucci stabbed in a Gallas goal at the far post, off his left shin. At 35, Panucci is the oldest player to score in open play in the European Championships. Cassano then replaced Perrotta, Udinese’s Quagliarella came on for Del Piero.
Despite that blunder, Zambrotta was having a storming game. Milan have just signed him from Barcelona for £7 million.
In 80, a good penalty decision call by Norwegian referee Ovrebo as Panucci held Niculae in a subtle way, a clear professional foul. Mutu took it, Buffon saved to keep Italy alive. An entertaining battle, lots of exciting action, and quite amazing that only two goals were scored. Every team needs a bit of luck and Italy got theirs when Mutu hit that penalty too straight and Buffon parried it down and the ball hit his foot and rebounded away. So the Italians live to die another day in the Group of Death.
On Tuesday, Holland play Romania at 7.45 pm on BBC3, while France kick off against Italy in Zurich at the same time.
The second games were generally better than the nervous first games, although van Basten said Holland played better in beating Italy 3-0 than when beating France 4-1.
The great Johan Cruyff sat high in the stand, looking fit and relaxed in a pale grey jacket. It was Cruyff who inspired Ajax to a hat-trick of European Cups, Cruyff who was voted European Footballer of the Year three times, Cruyff who was sold by Ajax to Barcelona for a world record fee of £992,300. He coached Barcelona for eight seasons between 1988 and 1996 and won 11 trophies.
I’ll always remember meeting JC at Wembley after Barcelona beat Sampdoria in extra time with a Ronald Koeman free-kick. Reporters had him pinned to a glass wall in the conference centre, across from the stadium, and he was answering question after question after question, a lot of faces in his face, a lot of dictaphones in his face. But the great man was wholly relaxed and I realised that Johan Cruyff had been pinned to a wall by reporters since he was 17 years old. If anybody was used to this crazy, intrusive scrum, he was. For as long as he could remember, Cruyff had probably pinned to a wall by reporters.His relaxation seemed to say : this goes with the territory, I’m used to it now.
Cruyff was a huge influence on football when he played, when he coached, and even today. He brought Rijkaard to Barcelona, he talked Van Basten into going back to Ajax as a youth coach, and then he blagged his mate into taking over the national team.
The next Arsenal board should line up Marco van Basten to succeed Arsene in 2011, or sooner. He would not stay a long time but he would win the European Cup.
As a centre forward, Van Basten had an imperious quality which made him look like no other striker of the last 20 years.