EXPECT to see Horacio Elizondo's e-mail address printed in at least one of the English red tops during the coming week. The Argentine referee sent Wayne Rooney off on the hour mark here yesterday, leaving England to play out the rest of the game a man down and a chip on the shoulder up. By the time whistle went on 90 minutes, it hadn't actually made a massive difference . . . not on the scoreboard anyway . . . as the sides geared up for extra time.

Somehow, the prevailing wisdom during the week had come to the conclusion that this would be England's time.

Even Gary Neville . . . usually a reliably straight shooter when it comes to this kind of thing . . . peddled the line that England's biggest problem had been that the teams they'd come up against hadn't been interested in playing football against them. The bigger the team, the better England's chance. Failing that, for no reason other than, well, it has to happen sometime, this would be the match where they'd break out of their shell and wow the world.

The way England have played in this tournament, though, it was a theory not a million miles removed from the idea of sticking a thousand monkeys in a room with a thousand typewriters in the hope that they'll eventually churn out Hamlet. It was based on hope more than judgement, hype rather than intuition. And it turned out to be just as empty as the hope and hype they've dragged into every game in Germany There was a brief hubbub in the opening 10 minutes, the England midfield getting closer to Wayne Rooney for once and a couple of neat onetouch moves that came to nothing but caused a roar or two anyway. But as the half wore on, Rooney was left further and further up the pitch on his own with fewer and fewer of his team-mates close enough to him for him to have any effect. He did manage to get a shot in at the end of that opening flurry but only because the Portuguese defenders . . . otherwise limpettight . . . inexplicably backed off to give him a clear sight of the goal. The shot was straight at Ricardo.

Down the other end of the pitch, Rooney's Manchester United team-mate Ronaldo was having a fine game. His battle with Ashley Cole in Lisbon two years ago was an epic, the Portuguese winger getting knocked down and getting up again time after time. He'd just signed for United before Euro 2004 and this was the first glimpse most outside Portugal had had of him. We know a bit more about him now, of course, and few would know as much as his United clubmate Gary Neville. Some days it doesn't matter, though, as Neville had pleasure of finding out yesterday, Ronaldo slipping him three times in the first half alone. One shot deflected over the bar after 13 minutes was his contribution without the decoration.

For a team that plays with one striker up front on his own, Portugal make limited enough use of the other players in their side. Time and again yesterday, either Ronaldo or Luis Figo got into crossing position and time and again, they aimed for Pauleta even though John Terry was having one of those days when the ball seems magnetically draw towards his forehead.

And all the while, either Maniche or Tiago would be arriving unnoticed on the edge of the box. Frustrating.

It was that sort of game.

Neither side was playing anything particularly flowing and of genuine chances there were precious few. Lampard added another couple of shots to the tale of woe his tournament has been in front of goal and Figo had one that curled dangerous towards but just beyond Paul Robinson's lefthand post. For the third time in this World Cup, England left the field at half-time with the score 0-0.

It took two players leaving the field for good during the second half for the whole show to liven up. First David Beckham went off injured six minutes in, replaced by Aaron Lennon. And then came Rooney's sending-off, right on the hour mark.

It looked to be a farcical decision initially, the United striker seemingly guilty of no more than a shove on Ronaldo after a tussle with Ricardo Carvalho. But the tussle took place right underneath the referee's nose and he saw what it took the rest of us a look at the television replay to see. Rooney stood on Carvalho's crotch and as a result had to go.

In a strange sort of way, it freed England up. Peter Crouch came on for Joe Cole, Owen Hargreaves ran his heart out, just about beating Terry as England's and the game's best player and the game came to some sort of life. Figo had a shot clawed away by Robinson, Hugo Viana screwed one wide.

At the other end, Lampard found himself all alone from a corner but missed his kick completely and had another swipe when Lennon scared the Portuguese defence to death with his pace.

But ultimately, the game petered out and was destine for extra-time from a fair way out.