France -2 England - 1: A calamitous injury-time collapse by England handed their main Group B rivals a dramatic victory at the Stadium of Light in Lisbon last night where Sven-Goran Eriksson's sprinkling of Manchester United stars came to learn at first hand just how Bayern Munich felt after an almost identical Champions League finale five years ago.

Zinedine Zidane's two goals, the first an exquisite free in the first minute of added time, the second a spot kick in the third, stunned the English supporters who occupied three quarters of the vast stadium into silence and left the players and their manager to ponder just how it was that they had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

The French skipper had hardly been a major influence on the game but it will be for the goals he will be long associated with a famous victory. His side had trailed to Frank Lampard's first-half headed goal and through the closing minutes there had been clear signs of frustration creeping into the play of several of those around him. The man they call Zizou, though, remained cool to the end and when Emile Heskey fouled Claude Makelele to hand the French a free in a perfect position for the Real midfielder, he stepped up to curl the ball past the English wall and into the left corner.

The draw at that stage seemed reward enough for the French who hadn't previously forced David James into a save worthy of the description. Just a minute later, though, he was back for the winner after a badly-judged back pass by Steven Gerrard sent Thierry Henry racing into the box where he was hauled down by the English goalkeeper.

It all marked the completion of a staggering turnaround after David Beckham had missed a second-half penalty that would surely have sewn up victory for England. For while the French dazzled with much of their first-half approach play it was the English who delivered where it counted, in front of goal, and Lampard's 38th-minute header was no more than England deserved.

The goal was the product of a free, conceded by Bixente Lizarazu out on the left when the full-back clumsily nudged Beckham in the back. A mass of blue shorts remained static as the English skipper floated his free to the edge of the six-yard box for the Chelsea midfielder to rise from between two defenders and head high past Barthez and into the top right corner.

The goal was clearly a shock for a team that had enjoyed much the better of the game up until that point with Robert Pires, Patrick Vieira and Zidane all regularly threatening to open up the English defence.

Twice, David Trezeguet came close to finding the target for the defending champions but on the first occasion his headed attempt to turn William Gallas's floated ball goalwards was fractionally too high and two minutes later he narrowly failed to make contact when Vieira sent him clear with a brilliantly judged chip.

Rarely did Sol Campbell or the rest of the English back four look entirely on top of the situation facing them but Eriksson's greatest fear, that Henry would run riot from positions just in front of the defence, never came to pass and Ledley King held his own in what were very challenging circumstances.

James, in fact, had nothing more challenging to face than an awkward catch until into the opening minutes of the second half when Henry finally found the target but barely tested the goalkeeper with an overly-casual shot after a neat piece of running down the left. Straightforward as it should have been James still fumbled slightly, providing the vastly outnumbered French support in the stand behind him with hope that the breakthrough would come if only more pressure could be exerted on a 33-year-old with a distinctly chequered reputation.

As the French sought to press forward in search of an equaliser, though, it provided more space for the England strikers to run into.

Early on the Eriksson midfield pushed the ball around rather more sweetly than we have been accustomed over the past couple of years. The problem then was that the strikers were being so easily contained by the French four, for whom Gallas excelled.

As the second half wore on, however, the pattern was different with Lampard, Gerrard and Owen Hargreaves, after he had replaced Scholes out on the left, seeking to stifle the French attacks in their infancy, an approach that earned the first two of the three bookings for challenges on Vieira but one that generally proved fairly effective.

Now England were looking to hit their opponents on the break and their chance to put the game beyond their Group B rivals came in the 73rd minute when the outstanding Wayne Rooney spun away from Lillian Thuram, left the defender trailing and took off for the box. Once there he was hauled down by Mikael Silvestre who looked lucky to walk away from the incident with a booking. Barthez, though, saved Beckham's spot kick brilliantly.

We should have known then, but the French were soon to seize it with both hands.