Day 16

Another disappointing performance by England saw them sneak in a win against Ecuador thanks to a David Beckham freekick. After an hour of watching the boring English, Beckham finally opened his account and gave England a much needed goal. The game ended with the same scoreline but if England are dreaming of progressing to the next round, let alone the finals, they would need to put in a lotta effort and a much much better performance to even match up to Portugal and potentially Brazil! Lampard had a host of chances, which he duly sent above the bar and Rooney was all alone up front and Terry was a bit off colour as well - which is a worrying sign indeed!
England 1-0 Ecuador
60-Beckham(ENG)

One of the big games of the night - but what promised to be a splendid football match turned out to be a battlefield,literally. With a place in the QF to face England, both teams were going at it with hammer and tongs. It was a game marred with cards, with the Ref handing out 16, which included 4 red's - two per team! Deco and Costinha along with Boulahrouz and van Bronckhorst were given their marching orders at different points in the game. The end result was a 1 goal winner for the Portuguese, thanks to Maniche who drove the ball past van der Sar to give them the pass to meet England in the QF's. After 90 minutes, it was a 9 men per team game and a disappointing one for the Dutch as their campaign runs out of steam yet again. Portugal on the other hand set up a clash with England, but will be without playmaker Deco, along with a host of other people and that could very well have a say in the result.
Netherlands 0-1 Portugal
23-Maniche(POR)