Euro 2004
TURN BACK THE CLOCK
How a precocious teenager made England believe they could win Euro 2004
“I doubt how much Rooney can give to the England team,” France defender Lilian Thuram told the English media in the lead-up to the 2004 European Championship. “He is very young – too young for such a hard competition like this.”
Any remaining doubts that Thuram had over Rooney’s readiness for such a high international stage would have been eradicated 73 minutes into the first match of France’s title defence at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon. The 18-year-old England striker had looked completely at ease throughout, despite sharing a pitch with the likes of Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira, not to mention the more established members of the Three Lions’ so-called Golden Generation. His touch was immaculate, his passing precise and his physicality domineering.
But with 17 minutes to play, he proved unequivocally that he not only belonged at the tournament; he was intent upon owning it.
Chasing a cleared ball near the halfway line, Rooney, with the outside of his right boot, flicked it over Thuram’s head, collected it on the other side of the decorated defender and raced toward the France goal. Entering the penalty area, he effortlessly sidestepped Mikael Silvestre before being hauled down by the Manchester United centre-back to win a penalty.
Fabien Barthez saved David Beckham’s spot-kick. Later, in stoppage time, after Rooney had been substituted, England capitulated, sloppily conceding a 20-yard free-kick and a penalty, both of which Zidane scored to give France a 2-1 win.
It speaks to the shocking fearlessness of the England forward’s performance that despite the threetime World Player of the Year providing last-gasp game-changing interventions, Rooney’s name dominated the postgame discourse.
“We were just open-mouthed on the bench,” remembers Jamie Carragher, an England substitute that evening. “We were playing France, who were probably the best team in the world at the time. The players he was coming up against, it was unbelievable watching it from the side of the pitch.
“You were almost laughing. He was embarrassing top players who were playing for one of the biggest nations in the world. It was that feeling that he was playing football without thinking too much; just doing what he wanted to do.”
Emile Heskey, the striker whose place in the starting line-up was ostensibly taken by Rooney, could have been forgiven for feeling a degree of bitterness at the teenager’s emergence. But the former Liverpool player was as impressed as anyone with Rooney’s breakthrough
