Thierry Henry denied cheating to win the free-kick that led to France's second goal against Spain. Seven minutes from time Henry was barged in the chest by Carles Puyol as the pair clashed for a loose ball however as the Arsenal striker went down he clutched his face in howled anguish, as if he had been pole-axed by a flying elbow.
But afterwards Henry denied any suggestion of trying to con the referee Roberto Rosetti and claimed that Puyol had committed a "basketball block" on him.
"Puyol came up to me afterwards and apologised so how is that cheating?," he said. "Spain's left-back Mariano Perina was going to win the ball, so I don't know why Puyol cut across me, but he did. I don't cheat. People can say whatever they want to say but if any team has been cheated since the beginning of the tournament it's France," he added, referring to Patrick Vieira's disallowed goal against South Korea. "Look at the replay, their left-back was going to take the ball and Puyol came across me and blocked me.
Funnily enough, Spain coach Luis Aragones didn't agree.
COACH ACCUSES REF OF BIAS
Ratomir Dujkovic accused the Slovakian referee Michel Lubos of bias as Ghana's World Cup adventure came to an end. The African nation's Serbian coach saw his side go down 3-0 to Brazil after spending the second half of their second-round clash in the stand.
Dujkovic was sent off after approaching the referee at half-time to express his dismay at the standard of officiating. "I told him it would be better for us if a he put on a yellow jersey," he said. "Brazil are unbeatable and untouchable. I have never been sent off in my life and it hurts. But I suppose there has to be a first time for everything."
Brazil's coach Carlos Alberto Parreira had little sympathy for his counterpart. "That is what losers do, they whinge and they cry."
If not the referee, then Ghana have found others to blame. The country's bestselling newspaper, the Daily Graphic, warned prior to the match that Ghana's opponents "may resort to weaken Ghana's Black Stars before the kick-off by unleashing beautiful Brazilian women sex workers around the Stars' camp at night..."
ENGLAND SHOWN VIDEO NASTY
England were briefed last night on the underhand tactics that Portugal might employ in their World Cup quarter-final on Saturday.
Sven-Goran Eriksson warned his players about the gamesmanship that has been evident in matches involving Luiz Felipe Scolari's side and a Fifa delegate reminded everyone of the finer points of the rules and explained why there had been such a flurry of yellow and red cards.
Eriksson, who gave his players a second successive day off training, called the squad to a 7pm meeting to run through the strengths and weaknesses of the team who knocked them out of Euro 2004. Gary Guyan, the FA's video technician, had put together a montage of Portugal's games, particularly Sunday's defeat of Holland when 16 yellow cards were shown and both teams finished with nine men.
Presumably the Portuguese were watching a montage on the dives of Joe Cole, John Terry and Steven Gerrard...
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