Zidane shatters England 2-1 in injury-time

France came back from a goal down in injury-time to claim an amazing 2-1 victory over England in their opener of the European soccer championship at Estatdio da Luz on Sunday.

Late double from Zineine Zidane stunned the England fans as the French playmaker converted a splendid free-kick and a penalty shot in two minutes of the injury-time.

After second-half substitution Emile Heskey brought down Claude Makelele on the edge of the penalty area, Zidane stepped up to curl an unstoppable shot into the corner past a stationary goalkeeper David James, making the score 1-1.

Just one minute later a stray back pass from Steven Gerrard put Thierry Henry clear and James was forced to pull down the striker in the area, which handed the England goalkeeper a yellow card, and even worse, gave France a last-minute penalty, which was converted sedately by Zidane to complete an terrific turnaround.

French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez was another hero as he kept out David Beckham's spot-kick at the 73rd minute.

"We can thank Fabien for making the difference," said Zidane.

"He kept it 1-0 and kept us believing we could still win the game.

"It was not going our way but in the end it's a very positive result. We suffered but overturned the situation, " added he.

France coach Jacques Santini also agreed that Barthez's penalty save was the turning point of his side's win.

"England gave us a very difficult match and at half-time I told the players they had a big job to do," Santini said. "We started the second half well but I have to say that penalty save from Fabien boosted us.

"That was a big psychological boost in our favor," added Santini.

However, England were not willing to face the clumsy final result as they put their defeat into bad lucks.

"We were very unlucky. Tactically we played very well and we were in control," said England coach Sven-Goran said. "I thought they had run out of ideas in the last 10 minutes and they never got beyond our back line. I thought we had won. Then to not even get a draw is unbelievable."

"I think we played very good football considering we met France.

"We defended well, we created chances and we could have led 2-0.

"We did what we had to do but we had bad luck today. I think that you will see England in the quarter-finals. I don't think you can have bad luck like that twice in three weeks."