"I
am not a number, I'm a free man," bellowed the
Prisoner. Greedy sod, he should have been grateful,
because Coventry City striker Paul Williams is remembered
in the tomes of football folly by just a solitary letter.
Yes, one blessed letter.
MORE
PENALTY MADNESS AT THE EUROS... TUESDAY
17th JUNE 2008
Angus
Loughran must be dribbling into his dressing
gown with the amount of footy-stat fancifulness
that Euro 2008 has provided so far.
And
just when you thought Turkey's late winner
had put an end to notions of a randomly
organised penalty shoot-out settling positions
between teams in a Group, it turns out
there's more on offer tonight.
Except this time the 12-yard
contest will not be to decide who qualifies
for the next round, but instead determines
who finishes bottom of the Group and is
sent home, and who finishes third in the
Group and is, err, sent home.
It's true. Should France and Italy draw
their game and Romania not lose by a Derby
County score, there will be a penalty
competition at the end of the game in
Zurich even though both sides will have
been eliminated from the competition.
Talk about taking the pressure off a shoot-out.
And exactly how happy would you be as
a supporter, even if you had sat around
for half an hour after the game ended
to eventually witness your team clinch
a 9-8 success from the spot?
Barking. But don't get me wrong, although
Hansen will ridicule it, and rightly so,
I'd bet good money that we'd all love
to see it happen!
