Gelsenkirchen, July 2 (DPA) Portugal defeated England 3-1 on penalties after a goalless 120 minutes here Saturday to gain a berth in the World Cup's semi-finals for the second time in their history.
Portugal first reached the last four 40 years ago and were then beaten by England. This time round, it was their turn to boot the Three Lions out of the tournament. The Portuguese will now meet the winners of Saturday evening's quarter-final match between Brazil and France.
After a scoreless game in which mistakes from both sides prevailed, it was star forward Cristiano Ronaldo's turn to fire in the decisive goal in the penalty shoot-out, which saw England's Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher all miss from the spot.
Simao and Helder Postiga netted Portugal's two others, with man of the match Owen Hargreaves scoring England's only goal in Gelsenkirchen.
'I felt confident and I shot strong. I'm very happy because Portugal is in the next round,' Cristiano Ronaldo told reporters when asked to comment about his penalty kick.
England dearly missed captain David Beckham, out injured in the 52nd minute, and played most of the second half and all of extra time with just 10 men after Wayne Rooney was shown a red card for stamping on an opponent.
With Luiz Felipe Scolari as coach, Portugal had previously eliminated England from the 2004 European champions, also thanks to a penalty shoot-out in that tournament's quarter-finals.
Scolari was also the man in charge of Brazil when the defending champions knocked England out of the World Cup four years ago.
Sven Goran Eriksson said his side had not deserved to lose.
'I'm sorry about losing on penalties. We practised penalties a lot, so I don't know what we more we could have done about it,' Eriksson said. 'But congratulations to Portugal.'
Portugal came into the match without playmaker Deco and defender Costinha, both suspended, while Eriksson once again chose to field Wayne Rooney as the sole striker.
Mutual respect and temperatures close to 30 degrees Celsius may have played a role in front of a boisterous 52,000 capacity crowd at the AufSchalke stadium, as both teams moved at a leisurely pace for much of the first half.
Cristiano Ronaldo was clearly the most inspired Portuguese player, but he was being kept in check by his Manchester United team-mates, Rio Ferdinand and Gary Neville.
The game's first clear chance fell Portugal's way in the 12th minute, when midfielder Tiago unexpectedly found himself with the ball in front of goal on the developments of a Figo free kick, but failed to tap it into the back of the net.
England, for their part, clearly lacked firing power in attack. An example of this came in the 17th minute, when there was no one in sight to pick up an inviting pass inside the box from Lampard.
Three minutes later, the Chelsea player extended his leg to meet a deep ball from Gerrard but failed to make an impact.
There was a rare flash of class from Figo in the 39th minute, with the Inter Milan winger sending a curling shot from the edge of the box just wide of the opposite post.
With neither team able to break the deadlock during the first 45 minutes, England suffered a terrible blow shortly after the break, when Beckham was forced to limp off the pitch with an injury and was substituted by 19-year-old Aaron Lennon.
Television images showed the England captain in tears while being treated by doctors.
Matters turned even worse for England just five minutes later, when a frustrated Rooney was shown a direct card for stamping his foot into Ricardo Carvalho's private parts right in front of the Argentinian referee, Horacio Elizondo.
There had always been concerns about Rooney's temperament, and his behaviour here showed the 20-year-old still has a long way to go to maturity.
Eriksson brought in a striker, Peter Crouch, for a midfielder, Joe Cole, and the move at least added depth to England.
But Portugal never looked seriously concerned, and always seemed to be on the edge of scoring.
In the 78th, Figo forced Paul Robinson into a spectacular dive to save his goal. The English goalie showed real composure two minutes later, when he coolly blocked a Hugo Viana rifle.
And yet, despite Portugal looking the better side, it was England who actually came the closest to scoring in the dying minutes of regular time, with John Terry firing an easy ball high over the crossbar.
There was much of the same in extra time, with Portugal dominating possession and England trying to sting on the break with the added weight and height of Crouch up front.
Fatigue soon took over and the rest of extra time offered fans little more than a festival of errors from both sides.
© 2006 DPA | 
