Portugal-France: Mother of… battles and a repeat of the 2016 final!

After 20 days of action at Euro 2024, it’s time for the really big matches of the tournament.

THE Portugal of Cristiano Ronaldo and the France of Kylian Mbappe are faced at Volksparkstadion of Hamburg (22:00, ERT1, sport-fm.gr, News Bulletin 247), aiming for a place in semi-finalswhere they will wait either Germany or Spain.

Starting with the Iberians, his team Roberto Martinez entered the tournament with high hopes but so far she has not impressed with her performance. Expectations from the extremely high-quality roster were high, but the Portugal struggling to create chances and sticking to constant targeting of the ‘ballless’ so far in the competition Cristiano Ronaldo.

It is characteristic that the Portuguese they suffered a defeat in the groups against relatively weak Georgia, while in the round of 16 they had a hard time with Sloveniawhich they eventually eliminated on penalties thanks to the heroic Diogo Costa who caught three executions of his opponents.

Anyway, h Portugal she is at “8” and has her first really difficult opponent in front of her. The challenge is great, the roster and the quality are there, so this big step will be needed if the Iberians are indeed aiming for their second trophy in the last 3 competitions.

On the other hand, the story so far about the France they are more or less similar. The “blues” also entered this event as the big favourites, however the “conservatism” of Didier Deschamps and a bit its mediocre performance Kylian Mbappe have led them to a “colorless” presence so far.

The “tricolors”, in fact, have not yet found the net in open play! Their goal against Austria was own goalThe Mbappe he scored against Poland with a penalty, while the qualification was on him Belgium in the round of 16 he came again with an own goal!

Here too, however, the same applies as with her Portugal. France managed, even with this modest presence, to reach the quarter-finals, and now they have a very big challenge against a very difficult opponent. If he manages to qualify, he will set the “bow” for another great run in recent years in major events.

It is recalled that this pair is a repeat of the final of Euro 2016. Then, the hostess France had played… single-ended (from early on without Ronaldo) Portugal by Fernando Santos, but the Iberians held on and managed to lift the trophy in extra time thanks to a goal by him (missing since then) Ender.

Possible XIs:

Portugal (Martinez): Diogo Costa – Mendes, Pepe, Dias, Cancelo – Palinia, Vitinia, Fernandes – B. Silva, Leao, Ronaldo.

France (Deschamps): Menian – Kouté, Upamecano, Saliba, Hernandez – Kante, Tswameni, Griezmann – Dembele, Mbappe, Tiram.

Referee: Michael Oliver (England)

Field: Volksparkstadion, Hamburg