It’s a final and for the European Championship. “It’s something I’ve always dreamed of, to win with the national team”, the 31-year-old said.
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“I’m pleased to have taken that decision and to have scored”. “I’m very proud as a coach and proud of my players – it’s not that I’m not happy personally but it’s mainly for the players”.
We were finally presented with a quality football match at the back end of Euro 2016 on Thursday night, after a tournament when defensive minded football has dominated the agenda.
We have our #EURO2016 finalists!
France will face Portugal in the Euro 2016 final football match at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on July 10, 2016.
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But as coach Didier Deschamps says, the host nation have not won nothing yet even though they will start favourites to beat a Portugal side that only hit form during their own semifinal against Wales.
And he expects home advantage to play a significant part come Sunday. “We didn’t discuss it beforehand, but maybe in two or three days we’ll talk about it and consider whether we need to discuss anything about this tournament”, he said.
“It’s an important step forward but the most important step is Sunday”.
“He’s a really great player with athletic quality, particularly in the air”, said the former France captain, who has a fully fit squad at his disposal. “This is a great story – the players wrote history by knocking out Germany”, he told reporters.
“We generate passion and fervour, we can see that”.
“In Euro 2012 and the 2010 World Cup, we were beaten by better teams”. We gave a lot and had a body language of power.
“We were unfortunate to concede a penalty a minute before half-time, that was bad luck”.
“We had our chances, but sadly we didn’t score”.
“We delivered our best performance at Euro 2016 today so it’s unusual that we suffered a 2-0 defeat”.
Our #EURO2016 journey may be over, but we’ll be back!
German had now run out of ideas and ultimately, despite all their possession and good passing, they just couldn’t break down the French defence.
Enthusiasm around the nation is set to reach fever pitch over the course of this weekend but Deschamps believes his players will handle the occasion, suggesting they learnt from some fitful earlier performances during the group stages.
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While a repeat of the Brazil rout was never on the cards, Germany could have scored a couple of 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.
