Eriksson finds defeat hard to take

Sven-Goran Eriksson admitted “to lose this way is very hard” after England suffered more penalty misery in a major tournament at the hands of Portugal tonight.

After losing in shoot-outs at the 1990 and 1998 World Cups as well as Euro 96, England were again done on spot-kicks in Euro 2004.

Michael Owen gave England the lead but a goal from Rui Costa took the game into extra time.

Tottenham’s Helder Postiga gave Portugal the lead, only for Frank Lampard to take the match into penalties with four minutes of the 120 remaining.

However, spot-kick misses from captain David Beckham and Aston Villa striker Darius Vassell proved costly, as England bowed out at the quarter-final stage 6-5 on penalties.

Eriksson told BBC1 afterwards: “To lose in this way is very hard.

“The spirit has been fantastic and I have no complaints about anything – the players and the atmosphere all the way have been fantastic.”

England thought they had won the match at the end of extra time but Sol Campbell's 'goal' was ruled out by Swiss referee Urs Meier for an apparent foul on Portuguese goalkeeper Ricardo by John Terry.

Eriksson continued: “I don’t want to comment on the referee – but we were not lucky with some things out there tonight. That’s football unfortunately.

“From the bench it looked all right – I haven’t seen it on television but the referee said it was a push and he decides.

“To lose on penalties is very hard.”

Owen added: “It’s a big disappointment – and it always seems to happen to us.

“Tournaments come along every two years so you can’t expect to win everything.

“But going out on penalties again is a bitter blow – although they put theirs away really well.”

Owen drew comparisons with Campbell’s disallowed goal against Argentina in the World Cup of 2002 – another header from a corner.

The Liverpool striker added: “It was the same then, he scored a perfectly good goal.

“I should have scored with a header before to be honest but I got a nudge and the ball clipped off my shoulder.

“I couldn’t see anything wrong with the goal.”

Several players appeared to struggle with their footing in the shoot-out – and Owen added: “The pitch is sand-based and we trained there yesterday.

“We took penalties and the way a lot of people take penalties puts a lot of pressure on the standing foot.

“It gave way at the other end yesterday in the practice.”