With the European Championship title at stake, France coach Didier Deschamps must decide whether to take the game to Portugal on Sunday or stick with the counter-attacking style that worked well against Germany in their semifinal.
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“We have to rest up well and already start thinking about the final”, he added.
France is the favorite team going into the finals of the Euro 2016.
Apart from the opening exchanges when France tore forward on a wave of noise from their home crowd, Germany totally controlled the first half. Germnay also had a few risky situations where they could have scored the first goal.
After defender Jerome Boateng’s handball had given Italy a lifeline in the quarter-finals, their captain’s similarly inexplicable high hand swung the game France’s way when they most needed it.
“We found it tough but we didn’t give up”, Deschamps said as he celebrated the 2-0 win in Marseille.
Germany coach Joachim Loew refused to commit himself to stay beyond the next World Cup campaign as he picked through the wreckage of the country’s Euro 2016 exit.
They had gone 50 years unbeaten against host nations at major tournaments, dating back to their loss to England in the 1966 FIFA World Cup final and encompassing a famous 7-1 humbling of Brazil in the 2014 World Cup semi-finals. “He’s one of the best players in the world – if not the best – and he has worked very hard to get there”, Sagna told a news conference on Saturday. “We’re closer to doing it and I believe that we’ll win”. A clever footwork left Shkodran Mustafi for dead before Pogba set up a cross that was parried by Neuer, and Griezmann was first on the scene to prod home his sixth goal of the tournament. “We still have a match to go”.
“He’s an exceptional player and it won’t be easy”, Sagna said. “(When we went out) in 2012 or 2010, the sides were better than us, but today that wasn’t the case”, he said. The 25-year-old stepped up and calmly slotted away from the penalty spot for the hosts’ opener on the stroke of half-tim, and he displayed his great eye for goal when he seized upon defensive uncertainty to poke home in the second half.
Germanyâ??s attempts at goal proved futile as Lloris made sure France held their nerve in the late moments of the game.
“Now the players are well aware of that power, and what they can give to the French people by wearing these colours”, the French manager said.
“We would also like to thank the hosts, France and the French people”.
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Asked about whether he meant to stay on after the 2018 World Cup in Russian Federation, he said: “I’m still disappointed so I don’t want to think about that tonight”.
