Stunned England fans watched their team throw away a 1-0 lead in their opening match of Euro 2004 - conceding two goals in injury time to French superstar Zinedine Zidane.

To compound the misery, when the team were leading England captain David Beckham missed a penalty which would probably have put the game beyond the French.

Frank Lampard put England ahead just before half-time, and fans in packed pubs across the country were already celebrating as the second half went into three minutes of injury time.

Then England committed footballing suicide. Substitute Emile Heskey conceded a free kick which Zidane curled around the England wall from 25 yards.

A minute later and Steven Gerrard inexplicably tried a back-pass to his goalkeeper, David James. Thierry Henry stole in and James unceremoniously up-ended him for a clear penalty, which Zidane converted.

Somehow it seemed terribly predictable as England have not won the opening game of a tournament for more than 25 years.

Beckham said afterwards: ''Sometimes you get the run of the play and they got it in the last couple of minutes. We didn't deserve that.''

England manager Sven Goran Eriksson could not hide his disappointment, saying: ''We were very unlucky. We played a very good game.''

The defeat means England must probably win their next two games against Switzerland and Croatia to guarantee qualifying for the quarter-finals.

A consolation for England sports fans was that a few hours earlier, in equally dramatic circumstances, the country's cricketers won the Third Test against New Zealand to take the series 3-0.

The four-wicket victory meant England whitewashed their opponents for the first time since 1978.

Durham's Stephen Harmison was named England's man of the series for the second series in succession.