MUNICH, Germany -- Yet another big soccer game decided on a penalty call. Yet another spot kick turned down for the team that lost.

France goes on to the World Cup final, thanks to Zinedine Zidane's masterly spot kick in the 33rd minute, the only goal of the game in Wednesday's semifinal. Portugal goes home, feeling aggrieved.

The French players celebrated, the Portuguese were in tears.

Ecstasy at one end, heartbreak at the other.

It came down to two incidents.

With the game still up for grabs, Thierry Henry collected the ball three feet inside the Portuguese penalty area with defender Ricardo Carvalho behind him. The French striker skillfully turned inside to head for the goal and Carvalho tried to tackle him. His right leg missed -- but his left made contact with Henry's right foot and the Frenchman went down flat on the turf.

"There was contact," Henry told reporters. "I thought I had gone past him and he caught me. I didn't ask for the penalty, but it was given."

Accident or foul? TV replays from various angles suggested either, but TV directors don't give penalties. Referees do.

Referee Jorge Larrionda of Uruguay had a perfect view and wasted no time blowing his whistle and pointing to the spot.

Carvalho looked at him in disbelief, holding his two hands together as if in prayer that the referee might change his mind. He didn't and, despite Portuguese protests, Zidane slammed the penalty kicked expertly past goalkeeper Ricardo.

Minutes later, the Portuguese thought they had payback.

Cristiano Ronaldo, who has a reputation in England for going down too easily to get penalties, moved to meet a rightwing cross from teammate Luis Figo. Along the way, he said he felt a push from French defender Willy Sagnol.

As the ball sailed over his head, Ronaldo went down.

But Larrionda waved away Portuguese appeals for a penalty.

"Anyone who understands soccer saw that the referee wasn't fair," Ronaldo said.

Maybe his reputation as a diver had reached Uruguay as well as France.

The Portuguese bench was furious. The entire row of backup players left their seats -- as they did many times during the game to protest decisions -- and one of the players' water bottles landed on the playing field.

Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who rants and raves throughout every game with his arms waving around like windmills, angrily wagged his finger at Larrionda after the game and was held back from getting at the referee.

Scolari conceded that Carvalho's challenge on Henry was a penalty, but he was adamant that his team should have had one, too, when Ronaldo went down.

"It was a penalty. We can't contest it," Scolari said of the Carvalho foul. "Just as it was a penalty on Cristiano Ronaldo, but he didn't call it. He was right when he called the penalty on the French player, but was wrong when he did not call it on Cristiano."

Scolari, who coached Brazil to the last World Cup title, suggested that teams such as Portugal, with little success at national team level, don't get the calls that seem to go to powerhouses such as Germany, Italy, France, Brazil and Argentina.

"Maybe it could've gone our way, too, although I doubt it," he said. "We are a small country. It's hard."

Two calls. Both were in France's favor, and both looked right. It's a fine line between success and failure at the World Cup.

This time, Portugal paid the penalty.