The European media have been digesting Zinedine Zidane's late double that
snatched victory from the jaws of defeat for France against England in Lisbon.
The captain of Les Bleus, whose injury-time free-kick and penalty turned the
Group B clash on its head, has unsurprisingly grabbed all the headlines.
Of the Portuguese newspapers, O Jogo's headline shouts "Zizou's Double Wins
Crazy Game", while the Record's screams "Zidane Does Not Forgive" and A Bola
declares "A Genius rises up".
In France, the front page of sports paper L'Equipe shows Zidane beating David
James with his match-winning spot-kick underneath the headline "It's
Unbelievable!"
Former England manager Bobby Robson, a columnist with O Jogo, believes a draw
would have been a fair result.
"France v England was for me the best game in the tournament until now,"
Robson commented.
"In my opinion, France deserved not to win but to come out of the game with
something. 1-1 would have been a more just scoreline because France were the
better team in the second half with waves of attack."
Meanwhile, with two Real Madrid players on the pitch, Sunday night's game was
always going to capture the headlines in Spain and the Spanish press have had no
hesitation in piling the praise on Zidane.
"Zidane is the greatest," wrote sports daily Diario AS, naming the Frenchman
their 'star of the game'.
"What he did is only in reach of one of the greatest players of all time,"
the paper continued.
However, Zidane's Madrid team-mate Beckham did not receive such a glowing
report.
"Not only did he not get into the game, but he also missed a penalty that
could have given his side an easy win."
Marca, another sports daily, tells a similar story.
"Zidane appeared and left Beckham in his underwear," write the sports paper,
who predict problems for the England captain.
"We already have a scandal with the England captain, whom the fans are not
going to forgive for his penalty miss," writes match reporter Ulises
Sanchez-Flor, while columnist Julian Ruiz decided that Beckham "has now become
the villain of Lisbon".
Even El Mundo Deportivo, usually slow to acknowledge success for Real Madrid
players, paid homage to Zidane.
"The genius is back," they wrote, adding that the match went "from
Beckham's miss to Zidane's glory".
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