Italy misfire, England lick their wounds

The other Group C match between Sweden and Bulgaria kicked off at 1845 GMT, ending a day that begun enveloped in the emotional haze of France's epic 2-1 victory over England on Sunday.

Despite a strikeforce featuring Alessandro del Piero, Francesco Totti and Christian Vieri, the Italians struggled against the rugged Danes who may even have snatched victory.

The match was played in temperatures in the mid-30s celsius and both sides used their full quota of substitutes as the heat took its toll in a stop-start second half.

Totti forced several good saves from Thomas Sorensen and Vieri stung the keeper's gloves with a bullet header. Left back Gianluca Zambrotta wasted Italy's best chance after a delightful inside pass by Totti.

Denmark refused to buckle, however, and had plenty of chances of their own, the best coming on 75 minutes when AC Milan's Jon Dahl Tomasson forced a fine save from Italy keeper Gianluigi Buffon.

The Danes will try to end a four-match European Championship scoring drought against Bulgaria on Friday.

Groggy England fans stumbled out for breakfast still shaking their heads in disbelief at David Beckham's missed penalty and Zinedine Zidane's dramatic injury-time double that turned the match against France upside-down.

Thankfully the talk was purely about football, with none of the feared crowd trouble taking place, either in Lisbon or down in the English stronghold Algarve.

The only serious crowd disorder took place back in England where frustrated fans rioted in various towns.

DEFIANT MOOD

England's players, meanwhile, were left to lick their wounds and pick their chins off the floor, although the mood of the coach was one of defiance.

"I think we played a fantastic game if you take away the last three minutes," coach Sven-Goran Eriksson told a news conference.

"The players did exactly what we asked them to do, what we had talked about.

"If we perform as we did yesterday I think we will go through and have a very good tournament."

The build-up to the next heavyweight clash of the tournament between Germany and the Netherlands on Tuesday has been spiced up by outspoken comments from both camps.

Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy has stirred up controversy in Germany by saying that the Netherlands were always keen to beat their neighbours because of World War Two with one columnist labelling him as pitiful.

Germany's World Cup-winning captain Franz Beckenbauer upped the stakes by saying the Dutch would beat themselves in the eagerly-awaited Group D match.

"(Germany coach) Rudi Voeller doesn't need to worry about the Dutch. They might have better individual strikers but we have the more balanced midfield and have a better team unity," Beckenbauer said. "We definitely don't have to hide."