“We earned our place in the final”, he added.
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With six goals and two assists, there is no doubting that Griezmann has been the most effective player in France this summer.
Pepe has been on excellent form in France, reining in his famed hot temper and organizing Portugal’s defense.
This Portugal team can go beyond that old one and finally win their first major trophy. That’s what Bastian Schweinsteiger and his contingent would have realized after the 0-2 defeat last night to hosts France in the Euro 2016 semi final.
With 18 minutes remaining in the tie, a mistake from Joshua Kimmich inside his own penalty area was pounced upon by French midfielder Paul Pogba.
But goalkeeper Manuel Neuer made a great stop on Griezmann to ensure that Germany withstood the early onslaught, giving the reigning World Cup champions time to pull themselves together. We can accept our opponent’s performance and sincerely and warmly congratulate the French team on progressing to the final.
The Manchester United midfielder was making his 38th appearance at a major tournament – a new global record – but the 31-year-old will now be unable to add to that until the 2018 World Cup in Russian Federation.
Portugal received a huge boost ahead of Sunday’s Euro 2016 final showdown with France when central defender Pepe trained with his team mates and appeared to be injury-free. “I judge my team by whether we play well or badly, not by whether we are pretty or ugly”, he said at one point during Euro 2016. “We believe in ourselves; so do Portugal”.
Les Bleus can also rely on passionate support from home fans desperate for something to celebrate after going through strikes and violent protests against a labour law, as well as a state of emergency still in force since last November’s Islamist attacks killed 130 people in Paris at several sites including the Stade de France, venue for Sunday’s final.
The players had felt the support of the French nation behind them, he said. The Atletico Madrid striker has now scored six goals in the tournament and is leading the golden boot race. We had good body language.
“That gives us greater strength, it’s lovely to see, but we still have that final step to take to really finish this competition in the best possible fashion”.
“You could say his hands couldn’t have been up, but there is little he can do to control them, so I can’t blame him for that”. “I have no doubt we will win”.
We did not do a bad job defensively, you always concede a few chances – you can’t prevent that, but we were lacking someone who scored.
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The feel-good factor which now courses through France – the Champs Elysees erupted with the sound of auto horns and flag-waving locals following the victory against Germany in Marseille – now requires a victory against Portugal to secure the iconic status of Griezmann and his team-mates. We didn’t have the luck we needed but in 2012 (European Championship semi-final loss to Italy) or 2010 (World Cup semi-final loss to Spain) when we went out, the side that beat us were better than us.
