England midfielder Steven Gerrard has vowed to make amends for his "silly
error" which led to France's injury-time winner at Euro 2004.
France's Zinedine Zidane struck twice in stoppage time in Sunday's 2-1 win,
curling home a free kick and then converting a penalty after Thierry Henry had
latched on to Gerrard's wayward backpass and been tripped by goalkeeper David
James.
"I am so disappointed over the back pass, I hadn't seen Thierry Henry. It was
a silly error by me," said the midfielder, who missed the 2002 World Cup after
groin surgery.
"It really hurts because we deserved the victory and had the game wrapped up,
but we gave away a silly free kick for the equaliser and then I did what I did."
Determined to look on the bright side, he added: "We can take massive
positives from what happened ... and hopefully we'll meet France again in the
final and get revenge.
"I'll make up for that error," Gerrard said as he prepared for England's next
Group B match against Switzerland on June 17.
"It makes our game against Switzerland even bigger now because we need to get
three points on the board ourselves and make sure we reach the quarter-finals."
The Swiss drew their opening match 0-0 against Croatia.
England had taken a first-half lead through Gerrard's midfield partner Frank
Lampard. Despite the defeat, players like Lampard and Gary Neville are convinced
England can have a successful tournament.
Lampard said: "We will use the experience of Sunday to a) get us through to
the next stage and b) to go all the way in the competition.
"Of course it will be hard initially to pick ourselves up and I should
imagine that not many people would have slept very well on Sunday night.
"We're not dead yet," said Neville. "This is probably the least bothered I've
been after a defeat.
"Obviously, losing is a disappointment but we played against the best team in
the competition and did well.
"It's not as if we've been ravaged 4-0 or 5-0 and they opened us up left,
right and centre," he said. "We did a lot of very good things out
there."
