Portugal’s forward Eder (C) celebrates with teammates after he scored during the Euro 2016 final football match between Portugal and France at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on July 10, 2016.
Advertisement
“I understood that Eder was the player who had to come on to hold up the ball in attack and create problems for France in the air”, Santos said.
Who, after all, would have penned only a cameo role for Ronaldo, now the proud owner of one type of winner’s medal that Lionel Messi doesn’t have, in Portugal’s Hollywood moment? They’ve always believed what I told them: “that we could win this”.
“A lot of hard work went into it. We worked hard from the first minute and right from the beginning of the Euros”. It’s a moment I can’t describe, I’m just so happy…
Crowds of supporters, some donning France or Portuguese flags, gathered at the base of the Paris landmark before and after Portugal’s stunning 1-0 victory over France after they were refused entry to the fan zone which was packed to its 90,000 capacity, Paris police said.
In the final, that passion meant picking up the slack when Ronaldo was carried off on a stretcher in the first half after a heavy tackle by Dimitri Payet injured his left knee. “I’ll need some time to digest this, just like the players”.
Liberated of their attention-grabbing superstar, no longer at the beck and call of his demands to give him the ball, his teammates played better, sharing the workload, getting into France’s box in numbers and giving French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris more to think about.
“The Portuguese people deserve this, our players deserved this”.
“Unfortunately, things didn’t go well for me”.
“The French are disappointed that they didn’t win, especially since they organised the event”, said another punter, Salhi Abdesslem.
While Portuguese will celebrate into the night and beyond, Les Bleus are left reeling from a galling extra-time defeat on home turf.
“Of course the overriding emotion is of huge disappointment”, the man who captained the Euro 2000 triumph and World Cup success two years before that said. It’s cruel to lose a final like that. It’s a rapid turnaround for a national team that exited the 2014 World Cup in the group stage.
France will lament missed opportunities with Antoine Griezmann heading over late on before Andre-Pierre Gignac hit the woodwork from six yards after turning Pepe inside and out.
“It really came down to very fine margins. We lacked what is essential”.
Advertisement
“Twice he tried to get back on the pitch but him being there in the dressing room and on the bench was very important for us”.
