The Manchester United striker let his fiery temperament get the better of him just when he needed to keep his cool, stamping on Ricardo Carvalho's testicles in the 62nd minute with the game against Portugal poised at 0-0.

He didn't help matters by shoving United teammate Cristiano Ronaldo who waded in to protest, and eventually had to be led off fuming at the decision.

England eventually lost on penalties, deprived of one of their penalty takers - Rooney.

It was deja vu for England.

They were leading 1-0 in their Euro 2004 quarterfinal against bogey team Portugal when Rooney departed with a broken metatarsal, a game-turning injury in a match also lost on penalties.

Beckham was given his marching orders against Argentina in the second round clash in 1998 by Danish referee Kim Milton Neilson - England went on to lose on penalties.

Wilkins was sent off against Morocco in the 1986 finals.

Before the game Rooney had declared himself ready for anything Portugal's tough-tackling defence could throw at him, but it was the volatile 20-year-old who lost his head, plunging his teammates into crisis.

His dismissal came just as England were taking control of the match as they attempted to reach their first World Cup semifinal since 1990, and barely 10 minutes after a tearful Beckham went off injured.

In response, Sven-Goran Eriksson took off Joe Cole and replaced him with Peter Crouch, with little other choice.

With Michael Owen out injured, the only other striker he had was 17-year-old Theo Walcott who has never played a Premiership game let alone a stormy World Cup quarter-final.

Rooney has been a marked man since returning from injury to boost what had been England's flagging campaign, and had been targeted in the three matches he has played in the tournament.