Portugal v France Analysis and Review

So, here we are a few days after the night before and I’m sure Cristiano Ronaldo’s head is hurting just as much as his injured knee after being up until the early hours of the morning celebrating Portugal’s first ever major trophy.

Portugal have been criticised this tournament because they finished 3^rd in their group and managed to win the competition after only beating 1 team in 90 minutes during the entirety of the Euros. Its difficult to argue with people when they say that France should feel hard done by, not just because they had a much better tournament and created the better chances, but because the spoilers managed to win rather than the entertainers.

It wasn’t an amazing spectacle by any stretch of the imagination, but I could’ve told you that it would be that way before the game even started, Portugal have a weird way of nullifying a threat without providing any threat of their own and it creates boring football matches. The thing is, they have been doing this now for years, ever since Euro 2004. The amount of luck Portugal have had or undeserved wins at International level is shocking. I remember distinctly Sol Campbell scoring a perfectly good goal in that very same Euros and Urs Meier ruling it out for a foul that never was.

That being said, Portugal deserve to be the European Champions because they won every game from the Last 16 to the Final. The fact that they won 3 of those in extra time should be seen as a testament to their team spirit and determination.

For France this is a big missed opportunity but it is slightly good news for French fans because since Euro 2000 their national team has been awful, and this was proof that the new crop are here to stay, and a lot of them are still quite young.

Key Incident/s

There were a few of key incidents in the game that could’ve sent the tie in an entirely different direction.

Ronaldo Injury – 8 minutes in Dimitri Payet challenges Ronaldo and injures him but he manages to play on until 25 minutes have been played and he is stretchered off in tears. A lot of people thought Portugal would crumble after losing such an influential player.

Griezmann Header – After 66 minutes, Antoine Griezmann had his moment to write himself into French folklore and he headed over from 8 yards, it was such a shocking miss from such a prolific striker

Gignac Miss – Now you could argue that Andre-Pierre Gignac plays his football in Mexico for a good reason and it was difficult to refute that when he contrived to hit the post from a few yards out after doing so well to drag the ball back and fool the defence and keeper. It was in the 91^st minute…if that goes in, France are the European Champions.

Eder Goal – The former Swansea striker was an inspired substitution by Fernando Santos and managed to score a magnificent 25 yard winner past Hugo Lloris to make sure Portugal’s name was engraved on the famous trophy.

Man of the Match – Pepe

Pepe gets a lot of criticism and for good reason; he dives, play acts and is a very dirty defender. In this game however, he was unplayable and unbreakable, he showed why Real Madrid value him so highly and kept France at bay for long periods, especially at the end of the game when they were holding on to that 1-0 lead. He ran so hard that he threw up after the final whistle, he put everything on the line for the cause and got what he deserved.

Even though the Euros is over there is still plenty of sporting action to come with the Olympics in Rio about to start, so claim some exclusive free bets from beatthebookies.co/best-bookies-offers.