Three things stood out from the game. First, the Spanish team passed the ball fantastically and totally outplayed England, who could hardly get a kick. For all this though, Spain could barely trouble England's keeper and I can't remember them having a proper shot. Their only goal was a farcical scramble that was more luck than judgement, headed vaguely towards the goal, while six or seven England players stood stock still and watched.
As for the penalty, well it wasn't one. My own view is that Raul knew this and he deliberately gave Robinson a sporting chance of saving it. The second memorable thing about the match was that England's players then seemed too thick to recognise Raul's sportsmanship and got themselves all worked up. If it had been a competitive game, we would have had at least two players sent off. Rooney in particular, seemed to go mental and had to be taken off after getting one yellow card, and going dangerously close to getting a second.
Eriksson obviously thought he'd better not risk being reduced to ten men, so what does he do? He brings on Alan Smith, the only player in the squad more likely even than Rooney to get himself sent off. Rooney showed his annoyance at being taken off by throwing off the black armband, worn as a mark of respect to the late Emlyn Hughes. Rooney was later seen on the bench swigging a bottle of lager, which will no doubt titilate the tabloids into speculation about an imminent Gazza-style decline.
Ashley Cole also began to lose his temper, and this may well have been at least partly attributable to the torrents of racist abuse that was hurled at him every time he touched the ball, which wasn't often by the way, as he was repeatedly skinned and nutmegged by a rampant Joaquin.
The second half was so boring, although England had a little bit of possession (as opposed to about 2% in the first half) - no shots, nothing. The third thing we remember about the match was the Spanish fans' disgraceful racist abuse of England's black players, with Shaun Wright-Phillips taking the worst of it. We so wanted him to score, but he couldn't really get in to the game which was dead by the 60th minute by which time all 12 subsitutes had been introduced.
It remains to be seen if FIFA will do anything about the obvious racist abuse. Only last week Spain's manager was overheard making remarks that made even Ron Atkinson seem cosmopolitan. Big Ron lost his job, but so far Luis Aragones remains in his. It looks like one law for unrepentantly racist international football managers and another for fat, jewelry wearing, former manager of Manchester United, metaphor mixing television commentators.