England is confident they can still get through their Euro 2004 group stage despite their last-gasp 2-1 defeat against France Despite their heartbreaking loss to France, England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson is optimistic that England can qualify for the next round in the Euro 2004 championship. "We have to win against Switzerland (today) and Croatia and I think we can do that," he said. "We played extremely well against the world's best football team (France)," he said. "Now it's up with the heads. Let's hope we can play France on 4 July (in the final). We can't always have bad luck. The England coach added: "We thought we had the game won and we should have won it. You can never control France because they have so many attacking options, but in the 90 minutes they did not have many goalscoring chances. We must be proud, it's tough to lose -- we did not deserve to lose." Eriksson paid tribute to his two least experienced players -- defender Ledley King and striker Wayne Rooney who both impressed. "Ledley King was absolutely fantastic, not nervous at all," said Eriksson. "He couldn't have done better. Wayne Rooney tried but he had a good run to win the penalty and he always looked dangerous. "If we had lost 3-0 and not created a chance it would be different. The players are professional. They know they did an excellent job tonight. They did everything we asked of them and hopefully it will not be too difficult to lift them up." Eriksson also absolved himself of any blame after the defeat, saying: "If we played this game again I wouldn't change the tactics at all. Except that in the last three minutes we would have put the ball in the stand." Zinedine Zidane hailed Fabien Barthez after the penalty save which kept his side alive in France's dramatic Group B victory over England. Barthez kept out David Beckham's spot-kick with England leading and Zidane said: "We can thank Fabien for making the difference. He kept it at 1-0 and kept us believing we could still win the game. It was not going our way but in the end it's a very positive result. We suffered but overturned the situation." Zidane admitted his injury-time double strike -- which turned the game on its head -- had come out of the blue. "We had not had a good match and then came a little bit of a surprise at the end," he added. "It is matches like this that forge the spirit of a team. It is certainly one of the best games I have ever played in, along with the ones at Euro 2000." French coach Jacques Santini agreed that Barthez's penalty save was the turning point of his side's win. "England gave us a very difficult match and at half-time I told the players they had a big job to do," Santini said. Captain Beckham was left to rue his missed penalty, "I couldn't have struck it any better," said Beckham. "If we'd have gone 2-0 up, it would have finished the game off. "We didn't deserve that (to lose) but that's football. But he added: "We can take a lot from the game. It's important we pick ourselves up and get up for the next match." Goalkeeper David James admitted he had been deceived by Zidane's free-kick and was caught in two minds when conceding the penalty. "Zidane's done me. I took half a step to the left, lost the ball and it was whipped in with a bit of pace. That's something I've to address for next time," he said. "For the penalty, I was stuck in a bad situation because it was a back pass. If I stand off, Henry's got a free shot but if I catch it, it's a free kick. "I tried to do neither and unfortunately the penalty was given." Hundreds of disappointed English soccer fans went on the rampage across the country, battling police after England lost to France. In the worst incident about 400 fans confronted officers in Croydon in south London, while there were serious outbreaks of disorder in central, eastern and northern England. The trouble erupted shortly after the final whistle as stunned fans, whose team had been ahead till the last moments, vented their frustration on police. "I deplore the level of violence that we have seen in Croydon tonight," Superintendent Nick Jupp said in a statement. Police said 14 people were arrested following the hour-long disturbance there, which saw police vehicles and a tram damaged, and two officers needing hospital treatment for minor injuries. In Birmingham, central England, up to 200 fans rampaged through the city centre, damaging a bus, leading to 12 arrests. There were similar scenes of disorder in towns in Hertfordshire, north of London. In the most serious, five police officers suffered slight injuries when they confronted a crowd of 150 fans in Cheshunt. In all, 31 arrests were made across the country. In Boston, eastern England, two police cars were overturned and set on fire and officers bombarded with bricks when trouble broke out involving around 70 fans after the match. Police said 11 men had been arrested including six for violent disorder. There were also disturbances in Wakefield, northern England, involving several hundred fans who threw bottles and missiles at officers, leading to several arrests. In Lisbon, England fans crowded nightspots and mingled happily with French supporters after the game. Police arrested one England fan for allegedly punching an employee at the Lisbon stadium, a spokeswoman said. England fans rioted at the European Championship in Belgium and the Netherlands in 2000. European soccer's governing body had warned England they will be expelled from this tournament if there is a repeat. It's a fact -- SWITZERLAND goalkeeper Joerg Stiel, aged 36 years three months and 10 days, made certain of being the oldest player to play at Euro 2004. -- Johann Vogel became only the seventh player to be cautioned within five minutes of the opening whistle in the finals. Two of those players were given a yellow card in the opening minute of a European Championship finals match. -- When Vogel received his second yellow card and was sent off, he became the first Swiss player to be dismissed in a European Championship finals match. -- In his European Championship finals debut, Portuguese referee Lucilio Batista fell one card short of the competition record for most cards shown in a European Championship match. He showed a total of nine cards. -- Croatia's draw with Switzerland was their first draw in a European Championship finals match. Previously they recorded two wins and two defeats. -- Eighteen-year-old Wayne Rooney became the second youngest player to play in a European Championship finals match. The record holder is Enzo Scifo who was only 18 years three months and 25 days old when he made his European Championship debut for Belgium exactly 20 years ago. -- Lilian Thuram made his 100th international appearance for France. He is only the third Frenchman to collect a century of caps following Marcel Desailly (115) and Didier Deschamps (103). He becomes the seventh player at Euro 2004 with over 100 caps. -- Frank Lampard's opening goal put an end to France's clean sheet streak of 11 matches. The last time France had conceded a goal was against Turkey in the Confederations Cup on 26 June 2003. They had gone 1,077 minutes without conceding a goal. -- David Beckham's missed penalty was the 14th missed penalty in regulation time at the European Championships. It was also the first time England have failed to convert a regulation time penalty kick in a European Championship finals match. -- The last three missed penalties in European Championship finals matches have been awarded by German referee Markus Merk. -- Zinedine Zidane became only the 11th player to score more than one goal in a European Championship finals match and the second Frenchman after Michel Platini. -- The only other time a team has come back from a goal behind and gone on to win in the last minute of the match was in 2000 when Spain scored twice in the last minute against Yugoslavia to beat them 4-3. (compiled from wire services)
