Makelele fear over collarbone

France suffered one blow last night when Claude Makelele left the Estadio da Luz with his arm in a sling after the win over England.

The Chelsea midfielder, who is doubtful for France's second Group B match against Croatia on Thursday, said: "It is a problem with my collarbone. I fell awkwardly after colliding with Emile Heskey. We will have to wait two or three days to see how it develops."

His French team-mate Mikael Silvestre, meanwhile, admitted his surprise at escaping a red card from German referee Markus Merk for the foul on Wayne Rooney which led to David Beckham's costly penalty miss.

He said: "I could have been sent off. I'm surprised to only have a yellow card. But, on the other hand, David James was in the same situation when he brought down Thierry Henry. I think the referees had a meeting about not punishing teams too easily."

Silvestre said the French had studied Beckham's penalty techniques: "We had a look at all the penalties Beckham took and he was always taking them this way. So Fabien Barthez did a good job. He went to his right and it was a great save. I don't want to be an England player tonight. It is going to be hard for them."

Patrick Vieira said Barthez's save was "the turning point of the game", adding: "This French team never knows when it is beaten. For me, it was a fantastic win. At times it was frustrating because I don't think England played the game to win it. It was hard for us to find David Trezeguet and Thierry Henry up front but we kept working."

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