Zidane's the man to break English hearts

Indeed, this was as dramatic and painful for England as France's victory in the Euro 2000 final had been for Italy or Manchester United's Champions League success had been for Bayern Munich.

Eriksson's side had battled so hard to put themselves on the brink of victory, with Frank Lampard having headed them into the lead six minutes before the break.

However, Beckham then squandered a penalty as former United teammate Fabien Barthez produced a superb save.

Not that it initially seemed as though it would prove as costly as this. But with normal time already up, Zidane then produced a stunning free-kick to beat David James.

If that was bad enough, far worse was to follow. Well into injury time, James was left painfully exposed by a Steven Gerrard backpass as Thierry Henry bore down on him and he brought the Arsenal striker down.

Up stepped Zidane and, where Beckham had failed, his Real Madrid colleague made no mistake with a penalty of calmness and aplomb.

And so a France side that had remained unbeaten for 18 previous games seized control of Group B and left England with something of a qualifying, as well as psychological, mountain to climb.

But Beckham insisted England did not deserve to lose the game.

The Real Madrid star admitted ''maybe that his penalty would have finished them off''.

He said: ''I do not think we deserved that. We deserved to win. For 89 minutes we performed well and maybe if I had put the penalty away it would have finished them off.

''I hold my hands up for that. We played some great football and couldn't have done much better. Fair play to Barthez, he read it well.''

Beckham now believes England must pick themselves up ahead of Thursday's clash against Switzerland.

He added: ''We had a lot of young lads out there who played as if they had been around for a long time.

''They can take a lot from the game. It's important we pick ourselves up and get up for the next match.''

With the 65,000-capacity stadium more than half-full of England fans, there had certainly been no lack of support for Eriksson's side.

And they certainly started brightly, quickly closing down France's inventive midfield, but were rather lulled into a false sense of security.

For it was not long before William Gallas started pouring forward in support of Robert Pires to exploit England's vulnerable left flank.

Indeed, while the flat midfield quartet plays to the strengths of both Lampard and Steven Gerrard, it requires great adaptability from Paul Scholes, who was all too often lured inside.

That left Gallas and Pires to attack Ashley Cole, with David Trezeguet heading one chance just over the top, while Zidane also found space to flash a shot wide.

With Gerrard and Lampard at the helm, England nevertheless started to regain their composure, with Ledley King - in his first competitive start - making an important interception.

And, while there was little prior warning, Eriksson's side finally made the breakthrough just before the break.

When Gary Neville played a routine ball down the right touchline to Beckham, the England captain waited for the foul to come.

Having duly been awarded a free-kick, he bided his time before swinging over the perfect delivery for Lampard, who had stolen into space, to head past Barthez.

The priority was not to waste such an unexpected bonus, rather than allowing the opposition back into the game before the interval as in the World Cup against Brazil.

That mission was at least accomplished, with Henry, a virtual spectator up to that point, striking an ambitious overhead kick wide.

The real Henry, however, was back after the restart, with Henry twice testing James before two minutes had elapsed.

Indeed, with Zidane and Henry both trying their luck from long range, while Gary Neville escaped handball claims against him, the pressure was growing.

England continued to hang on, as much due to the doggedness of Neville and Sol Campbell as the youthful endeavour of King and Ashley Cole.

While Rooney started to lose his composure as England's strikers were forced to live off scraps of possession, it was not Eriksson's substitute - Darius Vassell - who was the surprise, but the man he replaced, Michael Owen.

It looked to be inspired as, just a few minutes later, Rooney powered to the edge of the penalty area and, ignoring the shouts of Vassell in space, he burst past Mikael Silvestre and was brought down.

Up stepped Beckham, who had spooned his previous penalty over the bar in Istanbul after slipping.

This time, his kick was on target but just at the right height for Barthez, who produced an excellent save to foil him.

Back came France with renewed hope and Eriksson acted once again, with Emile Heskey and Owen Hargreaves replacing Rooney and Scholes.

That looked to have turned the screw on the French midfield, giving England some much-needed breathing space, but it was reckoning without the dramatic late intervention of Zidane.