Players scorn referee Meier's decision

Devastated England players have criticised the referee for disallowing a potential matchwinner after they were knocked out of Euro 2004 by Portugal on penalties.

England, who lost the quarter-final 6-5 on spot kicks after the game finished 2-2 after extra time, made no secret of their feelings after Swiss referee Urs Meier disallowed a last-minute header from Sol Campbell for a foul.

"The lads are gutted," said midfielder Frank Lampard, scorer of England's 2-2 equaliser in the 115th minute.

"To go out on penalties is the biggest kick in the teeth you can have in football at this level."

"We've worked very hard to get here and after being back from the dead in extra time... we're all devastated."

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"We didn't play our best today but we worked very hard at certain stages to get back into the game and had a goal at full time -- that was basically a fair goal -- taken away from us which would have finished the game."

"There was nothing wrong with it, we all knew that and that makes it even worse."

"After that, we showed great character even though the lads were obviously knackered, we came back into it and then got beaten on penalties. What can you say?"

Defender Gary Neville was also adamant, telling reporters: "Sol's goal was a goal. That referee, I'm not blaming him... but I just thought he wasn't the best."

"I don't think anybody in the stadium thought it was a foul."

PENALTY SPOT

Neville shared criticism of the area around the penalty spot, where England had also had a few problems during training on Wednesday and where skipper David Beckham slipped up.

"It's re-laid turf around the penalty spot and you can see on David's penalty it just gave way on him. Rui Costa had the same problem, so did John Terry, but he was fortunate."

However, Neville shrugged of the disappointment, saying: "I don't think we should focus on the penalties because you are in the lap of the gods."

"It's a great game, entertaining for everybody and devastating for us that we've gone out... and a disappointment for everybody in England."

Keeper David James took his share of the blame for England's exit in the nerve-jangling finale, saying: "I'm gutted that I had seven penalties and I didn't save one."

"The frustration for all of us was that there was apparently nothing wrong with Sol's goal and after 88 minutes at 2-1 we would have gone through."

Terry defended his team's penalty takers after Beckham missed the first and Darius Vassell had their last one saved.

"It takes great spirit and great balls for any player to get up and take a penalty," said the defender.

"He (Beckham) was the first to put his hand up and that's the confidence of the man. But you can't blame Darius, or anybody else. It's just one of those things."