Italian referee Nicola Rizzoli saw that German captain Bastian Schweinsteiger handled the ball in an aerial challenge with Patrice Evra.
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It cast a black shadow over the tournament, but following a joyous semi-final victory over Germany, France aim to prevail in a third major final on home soil after the 1984 European Championship and 1998 World Cup.
Dimitri Payet has been excellent for France during the Euro 2016, scoring 3 of his 6 global goals during the tournament. Their 2-0 semi-final win over Wales was their only victory inside 90 minutes at the tournament. “That’s what we needed to do”. We actually had more of the game and should have won.
“We have continued to grow as a team in the last seven weeks and this togetherness, which made us strong in Brazil two years ago, has done the same again here in France”.
His side will start as favourites, but although Portugal’s win over Wales was their first inside 90 minutes since their arrival in France, they are wily and risky.
“We’ve written history because it’s been such a long time since we’ve beaten Germany”, he said.
“We all know that we have tremendous talent in the squad with [Dimitri] Payet, [Paul] Pogba, [Antoine] Griezmann, [Olivier] Giroud, [N’Golo] Kante, but obviously I think we are [also] a team”, he said. “We generate passion and fervour, we can see that”.
Since making his debut with the senior national team in 2006, Nani has appeared in 102 worldwide tournaments, making him Portugal’s 4 most capped player of all time.
“Now we’re in the final and we want to lift that trophy”.
“This is a great story – the players wrote history by knocking out Germany. We’ll try and give 100 per cent and have no regrets when we step off at the end of the match”. We do, too. It’s still very open. Otherwise, France’s strength is more for winning through sheer persistence.
“When you see the passion and the fervour in the stands around the ground. But, tonight, there’s also a lot of happiness in France”.
While a repeat of the Brazil rout was never on the cards, Germany could have scored a few times as they dominated the first half, but they were denied by poor shooting from Thomas Mueller, who ended his tournament scoreless, and a save by Hugo Lloris to block Emre Can’s bouncing shot. If you had it in your own hands, it hurts even more. That was like that. “I always trusted my players and this is their reward”. Today that wasn’t the case, we were better than the French, the head coach added.
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Les Bleus will need to improve its use of the ball against Portugal, and this could lead to Deschamps bringing N’Golo Kante back into the side at the expense of Moussa Sissoko, who wasted good attacking positions against Germany with some sloppy passes. We were better than the French. However, the French striker is still unsafe on the field, and should never be discounted by Germany when the hosts face them in the final.
