Losing a final to Cristiano Ronaldo has become an unfortunate habit for Antoine Griezmann and he is not happy about it.
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The France forward missed a penalty for Atletico Madrid in the Champions League final in May and his team went on to lose on penalties to city rivals Real with Ronaldo sealing the shootout win.
Almost 60 readers were feeling the blues after originally tipping the more widely fancied France to win the final early Monday morning (July 11) on home soil.
“We weren’t clinical enough”, said France coach Didier Deschamps who lifted the World Cup in the stadium as a player in 1998.
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The Portuguese had to win their first major trophy the hard way, stunning host France in the European Championship final after playing without Ronaldo from the 25th minute through extra time on Sunday.
Matchday 3: The Hungary vs Portugal game since more goals were scored in that game alone than in the other 3 games that day combined?
Ronaldo was stretchered off in tears in the first half and limped on crying with joy again after his side delivered the final knockout blow in the month-long tournament of upsets.
Do you agree with Tom that finals are always liable to be anti-climactic due to their very nature?
The unthinkable had happened.
Griezmann was the first player to find the target, but his header was tipped over by Rui Patricio, who was formidable in the Portugal goal. While the rest of the regulation-time game was also quite uneventful, the Portuguese were at least trying to not let the game end in a boring stalemate. In beating France without Ronaldo, Portugal shrugged off the one-man-team tag once and for all. Lloris had absolutely no chance, and we received the goal that we had been so desperately craving. Portuguese substitute Éder, who pundits and fans often describe as one of Portugal’s worst players, was able to curl his shot behind French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris. For the next 11 minutes, all of us could only hope that Portugal would hold onto its improbable lead, if only for the sake of not having to watch yet another game go into penalty kicks.
This article was originallypublished as: “Portugal: the Little Soccer Team That Could”.
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Ronaldo watched the game forlornly on the touchline as strapping was attached before dragging himself back onto the field. Arguing that a team like Portugal does not “deserve” to win or even deserving of being in the final is ludicrous as they did not cheat their way to that point or were gifted a goal due to an officiating error.
