麻豆社

Allez les Bleus

• Peter van Dyk
• 6 Jul 06, 01:02 PM

So, France and Zidane did it. They proved all the critics wrong by qualifying for Sunday's final against Italy. And that is exactly what French fan Ian and Portuguese fan Victor joined us in the studio to talk about. And, once again, I'm Martin Vennard not Peter Van Dyk.

Ian said that despite his age - 34 - Zinedine Zidane had proved that he was still a great player. And Ian said that he was happy that the French team contained so many players of African and other origin. In his view the booing of Portugal's Ronaldo that came from the crowd in the stadium on Wednesday night came from England fans or was provoked by the English press who wanted revenge for Ronaldo's alleged hand in Rooney's sending off against Portugal.
Victor - who comes from the same Portuguese island as Ronaldo, Madeira, and who looks like him - said Ronaldo was the type of player who thrived under such pressure and that it had not affected his game.
Was it a penalty? Yes, Henry was brought down by Ricardho Carvalho, but he made a meal of it, people thought.
Was Ronaldo trying to get a penalty by throwing himself to the ground? Probably. Is Barthez a good keeper, despite his fumbling attantics? Ian thought he was and that he was also chosen to play because of his team spirit and heart.
We were joined on the phone by Portuguese fan, Joao Duarte, who said he had watched the match in a bar in central London, with fans of many different nationalities, including French, and that the atmosphere had been good.
And Portuguese fan Jean-Pierre Ribeiro, who called from Paris, said that he watched the match in a squash club bar in the French capital, surrounded by French fans.
We were having a few problems with the phones this morning so we didn't get through as many callers as we would have liked, but Italian fan Giancarlo Pelati, called to talk about the final on Sunday. He's hoping for a good match.
Is

We got the following text messages:

Do teams end up playing in a style that reflects their manager's temperament? Portugal were demonstrative, feisty and volatile; England were low-key, understated and overly-defensive; Trinidad and Tobago were wily, spirited and lively; Germany were full of self-belief, efficient and optimistic.

Richie wrote:

Ronaldo (and a few others) in the France game was throwing himself around trying to get penalties even though the non-football fraternity could see that he was cheating?

Shaimy wrote:

winner - france most entertaining team - errr spain biggest flop - czech rep biggest fluke- portugal going through funny moment- Bartez trying to catch the ball.