Romania hold France to a goalless draw

France were held to a 0-0 draw by Romania on Monday in a defence-dominated match at the European Championship that lacked few clear scoring chances.


Without captain Patrick Vieira and record scorer Thierry Henry, the World Cup finalists dominated possession but failed to penetrate a backline led by Gabriel Tamas. Romania played with usual defender Cristian Chivu in a midfield role as part of a conservative formation drawn up by coach Victor Piturca.


It worked.


"Maybe the French are bored with playing at the highest level and let us Romanians win a point," Piturca said. "My players are exhausted."


The best chance fell to France striker Nicolas Anelka in the 33rd minute. After a short corner, Franck Ribery's cross into the Romanian box evaded everyone, bouncing up high to Anelka at the far post. The 29-year-old Chelsea player had time to pick a spot with his header, but sent the ball over the crossbar.


The result leaves both teams with one point in Group C, the competition's toughest. The Netherlands and Italy are also in the group.


"It's important not to lose to a direct opponent, so you can say it's positive," France coach Raymond Domenech said. "It was not easy."


France seemed intent to control the match early, spreading the ball around the midfield with ease but failing to penetrate Romania's defense. Without Henry, who has not trained in four days, France's tactical play lacked creativity. The team has yet to disclose the 30-year-old FC Barcelona striker's injury.


Ribery created the first chance in the ninth minute, curling a pass down the right into space to Anelka, who hit a first-time volley but sent it well wide. Strike partner Karim Benzema then shot over from 20 metres (yards) after good work holding the ball up by Claude Makelele.

Kahn takes final bow from football :(

gendary German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn took his final bow from competitive football before a capacity 1.20 lakh crowd at Yuva Bharati Krirangan as Bayern Munich decimated Mohun Bagan 3-0 in a friendly in Kolkata on Tuesday.

Kahn, who turns 40 next month, handed over the gloves to youngster Michael Rensing in the 55th minute of the match and took a seat in the reserve bench as the entire stadium stood up to give a sentimental farewell to one of the best goalkeepers of contemporary football, thousands of miles away from his home.

"It is a very special moment for me. Thank you for the great night," the golden ball winner of the 2002 World Cup said during the half time break as he was showered with gifts by match organiser Bengal Peerless, Mohun Bagan and the Indian Footbal Association.

After having a measure of their opponents in the first few minutes, Bayern established midfield control with medio Mark Van Bommel and Ze Roberto dictating terms on their rivals.

The fancied outfit shot into the lead in the 18th minute thorough a freak goal.

Schlaudraff cut into the box, looking dangerous, and a desperate Anand Vasan tried to thwart him with a close tackle, but only managed a deflection back to the German, who shot home.

Bayern doubled the lead 19 minutes later from a set piece. Ze Roberto let loose a curling left-footed free kick which foxed the wall and entered the net to the left of Bagan goalie Sangram Mukherjee who seemed to be totally clueless.

The insurance goal came in the 52nd minute when Schlaudraff finished off a measured pass from Christian Lell.

Bayern held sway, and could have returned home with a bigger margin but for Sangram, who brought off a couple of good saves.

In the 22nd minute, Sangram thwarted a Schlaudraff effort, and 10 minutes later flung himself in the air to punch out from harms way a thumping Roberto shot.

The second half saw Bagan trying to carry out raids into the rival territory, but the Bayern defence gave little away.

The closest Bagan came to making a dent in the scoreline was when Lal Kamal Bhowmick's 80th minute long ranger grazed the upright and went away.

But the second half would be remembered more for the rough play and frayed tempers among the players of the both sides.

Things turned ugly in the 82nd minute when Branco Cardozo, who substituted Lalampuiya in the 64th minute, brought down Brazilian defender Breno with a tackle from behind.

The Brazilian under-20 captain lost his cool, and immediately got up to kick the Bagan player, and the two soon came to blows. The other players rushed in, and the referee managed to separate the two after much effort.

The match was halted for a short while as the officials of both sides came to the ground and brought the situation under control after both the offenders were given marching orders.