Sven's transfer after England's Euro 2004 exit shocked FA chairman | Football

Sven-Goran Eriksson shocked the Football Association chairman with his calm demeanour despite England’s cruel exit from Euro 2004. The Three Lions’ famous ‘Golden Generation’ looked set for a great run after finishing second to France in the group stage.

But England were sent home empty-handed by Portugal in the quarter-finals. Michael Owen opened the scoring for his country just three minutes into the match, capitalising on a Portuguese defensive error by acrobatically deflecting the ball past Ricardo.

England then looked to control the game until the 83rd minute when Helder Postiga, poorly marked, headed home from six yards. The game went into extra time with Sol Campbell’s header disallowed for a foul on Portugal early in the second quarter.

Rui Costa put Portugal ahead in the 110th minute, before Frank Lampard equalised again five minutes later. The match was decided in a tense penalty shootout, in which David Beckham fired the ball into the Z-line before Darius Vassell’s penalty was saved by Ricardo’s bare hands, allowing Portugal to progress.

While many managers were furious at being knocked out of the European Championship in such heartbreaking fashion, Eriksson surprised former FA Club England chief executive Adrian Bevington with his calm demeanour and measured approach to the result.

Speaking to Sky Sports following Eriksson’s death on Monday (August 26), Bevington said: “One of my best examples of him as an individual and as a quality of person was when we lost the quarter-final in Portugal in 2004 on penalties. We had a goal disallowed in extra time.

“Wayne Rooney had gone off injured early in the game, so a lot of things went against us that night. After the game, with a lot of emotion, he wanted to go to the referee. So we both went to the referee.

“I wondered what he was going to do here. With his usual calm, professional and polite manner, he went around to all the referees, shook their hands, said ‘well done’ and wished them good luck. And then we came back. I was a bit stunned. There are very few football coaches who can handle what is happening and behave in such a professional manner. That was the magnitude of Sven-Goran Eriksson.”

Portugal also suffered a setback later in the 2004 European Championship. Despite a 2–1 win over the Netherlands in a tight semi-final, the Portuguese were beaten by a single goal by unlikely winners Greece in the final match of the tournament. A corner from Angelos Basinas found the head of Angelos Charisteas in the 57th minute of the match, which was enough to earn Greece their first and only European Championship title.