Zidane win saves France as Euro 2004 fever sweeps China
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-06-14 14:05

The second day of Euro 2004 held in Portugal has ended in dramatic fashion. France's 2-1 victory over England sends them to the top of Group B as Euro 2004 fever sweeps China.

France's 2-1 victory over England sends them to the top of Group B, while the Croats were unable to break down the defence of a Swiss team left with just 10 men.

In the exciting France-England clash, England opened the scoring through Frank Lampard's header in the 38th minute and Sven Eriksson's players kept the lead till the 90th minute.

However, a free-kick and a penalty from Zinedine Zidane in injury time saved France at the last moment and gave Jacques Santini's team the lead in the group.

England captain David Beckham missed a penalty in the second half when his kick was punched away by French goalkeeper Barthez.

In the other game, Croatia were held to a 0-0 draw by Switzerland in their opener despite facing just 10 men for 40 minutes.

Euro 2004 may only involve European teams, but fans are certainly not limited to that continent.

Chinese fans are catching the fever and tuning into live coverage by CCTV Sports. And Sport's bars all across Beijing are drawing in hordes of excited crowds.

This man finds the sports craze a good outlet for the stress of of daily life.

Of course the Chinese are not new to football madness. The World Cup and the European Champion's league are always avidly followed in China but it seems that with Euro 2004, the soccer hype has reached a new high.

In fact, soccer fever has so thoroughly infected China that for the first time, the official Euro 2004 website has created a Chinese language version. So fans who miss the games on CCTV Sports can always go towww.euro2004.comto catch the latest scores and news in Chinese.