It is Griezmann, however, who has captured imaginations at the Euro and he provided another exhibition of his talents with a brace in the 2-0 semi-final win over Germany.
Advertisement
Former Spain captain Xavi Hernandez will present either Portugal or France with the European Championship trophy following the Euro 2016 final on Sunday.
“We don’t have the power to solve people’s problems”, France coach Didier Deschamps said, reflecting on the national trauma.
And Kroos reacted: “We delivered our best performance at Euro 2016 today so it’s odd that we suffered a 2-0 defeat”.
“The French media are sure of the win [for France]”. In the semifinal, he stuck with the 4-4-2 that worked so well against Iceland, but it left France completely dominated for much of the first half against Germany.
France and its football team have been here before – in 1998, the myth was presented of a “black-blanc-beur”, or “black-white-Arab” team, a set of players including star midfielder Zinedine Zidane who reflected a harmonious multi-ethnic society. That effort gave them the victory, and advanced them to the final of the tournament.
The 56-year-old has a German FA (DFB) contract until the 2018 World Cup finals in Russian Federation. Griezmann may still sit ahead of Ronaldo in the scoring stakes and have been more consistent over the tournament as a whole, but if Ronaldo outplays Griezmann on Sunday, then Ronaldo rather than Griezmann will be seen as the face and player of Euro 2016.
“We have a few players with a few caps but they gave everything and that’s great for me as a coach”.
Griezmann missed a penalty for Atletico Madrid in their Champions League final defeat by Real Madrid in May and made a poor start to the Euro in France’s 2-1 win over Romania.
But die Mannschaft know they wasted their chance to beat the hosts.
“Sir Alex told me: “Franz, you can not imagine a harder-working player than Ronaldo”.
“It’s always bad to concede just before the break”, was all Schweinsteiger could say about the incident.
The French could scarcely believe their luck.
Griezmann sent goalkeeper Manuel Neuer the wrong way with his spot kick. We do, too. It’s still very open. “Overall, we have a great side”.
In Marseille, Griezmann was ruthless.
Mesut Ozil was booked for kicking the ball away in disgust after the penalty decision, while Thomas Mueller had to restrain some team-mates furious with the decision.
Handball penalties were the thorn in Germany’s side in the knock-out stages. The final of the Euros will be an exceptional moment for us and we have to make the most of it.
Then Schweinsteiger was caught out when defending a corner and both players should have known better. And they will try inflict the same pain upon France.
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.
On a positive note, after two years of experimenting, Loew finally seems to have found his ideal back four with Joshua Kimmich and Jonas Hector having nailed down the wing-back berths.
Cristiano Ronaldo, accustomed to fighting with Lionel Messi for the right to be called the best player in the world, takes on a different challenger in France’s Antoine Griezmann, this time for European supremacy.
Advertisement
At the other end of the age scale to Mario is 32-year-old Jose Fonte who has had to make the worldwide grade the hard way.
