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In extra time, the Swede Anders Svensson came closest to the "golden goal", with a rare pirouette he cleared himself, but he hit the post. In the last minute of the game, Kahn intercepted a rare attack from Paraguay, shot the ball far over the halfway line, and passed through a Paraguayan defender to Bernd Schneider, who served substitute Oliver Neuville. Nothing more was expected from the Irish team, but the team stayed on their feet against the champions of Africa Cameroon: 1-1. The team quickly fell behind against Germany, it constantly came up against the excellent goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, Robbie Keane scored the equalizer in injury time. The best chance in the first half was for Paraguay, Jorge Luis Campos produced a shot from distance, which was carefully parried by goalkeeper Oliver Kahn. Beckham was involved in all goals, he also provided a sparse highlight in the second half, his long shot was parried by Sørensen. David Beckham, of all people, cashed in the penalty kick and had his ultimate revenge.

With a 1-1 score, substitute Wesley Sonck scored 2-1, man city jerseys shortly afterwards the only player behind the national coach Marc Wilmots scored. Paraguay's coach Cesare Maldini coached Italy at the previous World Cup and was known as a defensive coach. Eight players played for Italian top clubs, the main attacker was still Gabriel Batistuta, who scored nine times in his previous two World Cup Tournaments, but did not collect a medal with his country. Wesley Sonck claimed a starting place as striker, while he was only a substitute and the Belgian press responded to the increasing unrest in and around the national team, resulting in quarrels, backbiting and press boycotts from both players and journalists. It did benefit from the good performance of Bayer Leverkusen, which fought for the German title, the German Cup and the Champions League Final, but did not win any prizes, as five players were in the German selection. After six years he exchanged Liverpool for then low flyer Manchester City, with whom he played two years in the Premier League. Manchester City extended the title without playing itself in round 37. It became national champion for the third year in a row.

In September 2022 he exchanged Ajax for Manchester United. On September 2, 2003, he made his competitive debut for Real Madrid's first team against Villarreal CF (1-1). The midfielder scored immediately on his first appearance in the main force, giving Real Madrid a point. For the connection between Dallas/Fort Worth and Europe, the existing service to Washington was extended on January 12, 1979 with a subsonic stretch over the United States. Berbatov made 78 international appearances for the Bulgaria national football team between November 1999 and May 2010, scoring 48 goals, breaking the Bulgarian record set by Hristo Bonev in 1979 by a goal. A striking record was set by referee López Nieto; in a non-hard duel he handed out twelve yellow and two red cards, he beat Jan Wegereef's record during Uruguay-Senegal a few hours earlier. Germany, which had a bad European Championship and a difficult World Cup qualification, was not among the favourites. After his return, Mido still had to leave Ajax, because he was no longer welcome in the selection of trainer Ronald Koeman. It is the first base outside of China, but more will follow.

Spain took the lead early on through a goal from Fernando Morientes and, based on their surplus of technique, seemed to have few problems with Ireland. Vierri scored his third goal of the tournament against Croatia. Argentina, together with France, was one of the top favorites of this tournament beforehand. Iniesta received the Silver Ball after the tournament, as the best player after Ismail Matar. In a not very strong group, Japan qualified for the round of 16 after a draw against Belgium (2-2) and victories over Russia (1-0) and Tunisia (2-0). The most striking player was Junichi Inamoto, who played for Arsenal, but was not featured there at all. However, Ireland turned out to be just as tough as in previous confrontations against (on paper) stronger teams and the team fought their way back into the game on intransigence. The Spanish national coach José Antonio Camacho made his team play more and more defensively by substituting Morientes, but a few minutes later had to see that the other star attacker Raúl also had to be substituted due to an injury. The performances were poor with draws against Japan and Tunisia, the last game against Russia had to be won. Russia scored 3-2 in the final phase, but the victory was not in danger.