French hero Antoine Griezmann finally revealed the reason behind his freakish little dance celebration and it’s not what you’d expect.
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“The penalty, I don’t know, there is this rule, if the hand is not on the body if you see how Bastian approached the ball, the ball touched his hand in a tenth of a second”, the coach said.
– France are unbeaten in their last 18 major tournament games played on home soil, winning 16 and drawing two.
The world champions dominated long periods of the match, but it was only Les Bleus who could capitalise on incursions into the final third, with the excellent Antoine Griezmann scoring his second brace of the tournament. 11 years after Antoine Griezmann had to go to Spain to play soccer, he is the new national hero of France.
“We have to rest up well and already start thinking about the final”, he added.
From day one, we felt good, secure and very welcome.
France players celebrate in front of their fans at the end of the game in Marseille’s Stade Velodrome.
“I have won everything at club level and the individual level, this would be a great achievement to win something for the Portuguese team”.
While a repeat of the Brazil rout was never on the cards, Germany could have scored a few 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.
France will win a tight game and make home advantage count, but if they are victorious and lift the trophy, they may not go down as the best European champions we have seen.
Mark Clattenburg will officiate Sunday’s Final between France and Portugal.
The Germany captain may well have played his last European Championships, with reports he is considering immediate retirement from the worldwide game, but he did not touch on that in an open letter posted on the German Football Association’s Facebook page. Zoff won the European Championship with Italy in 1968.
“I had my share [of finals] as a player”, he said.
“Today we were better than the French but for the goals and result”.
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There are no major injuries on either side that we are aware of at this stage, although William Carvalho will be back from suspension and could slot back into Portugal’s centre midfield at Danilo’s expense and Pepe should recover from a thigh injury in time for Sunday. “We believe in ourselves; so do Portugal”.
