France 1 Portugal 0

[Eddie]

Henry made the most of the penalty, but it wasn't a dive as such, he was fouled.

[grizfoot]

Henry made the most of the penalty, but it wasn't a dive as such, he was fouled.

Yeah and if he hadn't have gone down there's no way the ref would have given a penalty. So he was just makin' sure if you like.

[Eddie]

Agreed, unfortunately in the modern game it is difficult to get a penalty unless you hit the ground.

[dave birch]

Agreed, unfortunately in the modern game it is difficult to get a penalty unless you hit the ground.

Rubbish.

In the Aussie game against Japan, there was a handball, which was given; and a barrelling of the keeper (who, from memory went to ground) which wasn't.

[Drakefyre]

What Pauleta was protesting when Miguel went down was not for a foul, but the fact that the French wouldn't kick the ball out of bounds.

[Eddie]

That isn't true Dakefyre. About 4 of them got around the ref wanting a free kick.

[DP]

There's diving, and there's diving

Strikers have been taking falls for penalties for years. A silly tackle comes in, and the player just makes sure there's enough contact for him to go down.

Read Speedie 92, Owen in 98/2002, Grosso 2006. Poor challenges from the defender, and the striker says thank you very much. Is he conning the ref or simply taking advantage of the rules of the game? For me it's the latter.

What we see now of course is players taking dives without contact, feigning injury and trying to get players sent off. Unfortunately Portugal have been by far the worst offenders of this in the tournament, although Henry against Spain was pretty awful too. Post match video evidence leading to bans will soon sort that out, but FIFA seem reluctant, alhtough I'm not sure why?

Won't have a problem with Italy winning the wc. Think they've really gone for it in the last few games and deserve it the most.

[Shevchenko]

Exclusive pic taken from one of Portugals closed training sessions.