Spain v France

[William of Walworth]

although i think the result last night was more down to France playing better than spain choking, the french were more wily, henry took attention off the defence to allow vieira to pass through to ribery, he also play acted to a certain extent to get the free kick, i think it was a free kick but he over played it....

germany, brazil, and italy go into tournaments expecting to win, and germany and italy tend to grind the results out (italy beating a much better brazilian team in 82) maybe france are starting to play like that (if you ignore 2002)

Agree with all this, especially the bolded bit.

 

[stavros]

Firstly, Henry dived and should've been booked, or, if the rules were as they should be, sent off.

Secondly, I should say that I think the current rule on offside is totally stupid as what counts as "intefering with play" changes every game according to the ref. However, Henry was intefering with play for Ribery's goal whichever way you look at it because the defence had pushed up to catch him offside as they did throughout the match which allowed Ribery acres of space to run into from an onside position.

Zidane's goal was good though, albeit against a beaten team.