GROUP F
Portgual 0-2 France
Griezmann 36', Mbappé 37'
Eamonn Foster
Allianz Arena, Munich, Germany
Wednesday 24th June
The nature of this Group F, given the inevitable ‘Group of Death’ title as soon as the groups were known, promised a trilogy of box-office hits in the clashes between France, Portugal and Germany. The group’s other team, for whom this really has been a group of death- and a quick one at that- is Bulgaria, who understandingly suffered defeat in their two opening matches to Portugal and France and as such are the group’s whipping boys and had to face the third and final part of their unenviable roadshow against a German side baying for more blood this evening in Munich.
Here in Hungary, however, to decide who would top Group F, it was Portugal, Euro 2016 and 2019 Nations League winners, against the reigning world champions France. Around 66,000 spectators made their way with their prized matchday tickets to this futuristic, shimmering stadium named after Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskas and the atmosphere was electric even before the players even appeared for kick-off. The stage was set.
The remarkable thing is that Portugal were far and away the better team for much of this evening in a sultry Budapest and yet come away somewhat deflated after falling to a 2-0 defeat. In the opening stages it was all Portugal. Ronaldo, once again leading the line for the Portuguese, dragged the usually poised Raphaël Varane out of the central defensive position time and time again as Rafa Silva and Bernardo Silva played in positions more advanced than we are used to seeing them by constantly ghosting into the gaps left by Ronaldo’s movement. In the centre of the park Ruben Neves, William Carvalho and Bruno Fernandes looked the more potent of the two central-midfield trios on display.
Portugal meant business. Ronaldo embraced Mbappé before the game in an all-too-clear display of exaggerated affection but from the first whistle Ronaldo wore only his game face. But for a smart tip over the crossbar by French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, he would have given his side the lead with a long-range looping effort after just 45 seconds. A Ronaldo header from the resulting corner was stopped only by an alert Antoine Griezmann on the back post and, to complete the hattrick of opportunities to get a very early lead, Bernardo Silva was tantalisingly close to wriggling past Varane on the penalty spot before losing his footing at the final moment and passing up the chance to test Lloris from very close range.
France, by comparison, looked, for large chunks of the game, uncharacteristically clumsy and rather unsure of what their coach Didier Deschamps wanted of them. Despite the toil involved for the French in seeing off Bulgaria, Paul Pogba was again selected in place of both Bayern Munich’s Corentin Tolisso and Juventus’ Blaise Matuidi, who had both impressed in the opening-match 3-2 victory over Germany. And as against Bulgaria a few days ago, N’Golo Kante and Sissoko were the men chosen to accompany Paul Pogba in the centre of the midfield, scurrying constantly around the pitch and acting as a welcome protective shield for the more languid actions of the nonetheless-threatening Pogba.
Whilst Griezmann and Kylian Mbappé looked fairly sharp throughout, several of France’s deeper-lying players laboured in the heat and when they managed to get the ball from the maroon-shirted Portuguese did not seek out their star duo nearly quickly enough. Unusually, the full-backs Lucas Hernandez and Benjamin Pavard were particularly guilty of this lethargy, especially in the first half-hour, and the irritation of Griezmann and Mbappé was clear for all to see. Pogba, too, twice chose long-range shots when Griezmann and Mbappé were crying out for the ball. The Manchester United man urged calm from his teammates but Griezmann, clearly irritated and in no mood to smile and nod, urged Pogba to simply look around once in a while.
Fortunately for the French, Pogba took heed of his shaggy-haired teammate’s dismay and played what was one of the finest passes the 66,000-something fans present will have seen for a long time. The ball fell to Kante slid in right in front of the French dugout to dispossess Portuguese left-back Raphaël Guerrero, who until Kante’s intervention had appeared intent on rampaging at will down the left flank. When Pogba picked up the loose ball it appeared there was little on and where most would have chosen simply to go back and allow the team to build up possession again, no such thought entered Pogba’s mind. Facing his team’s dugout, he dummied as if to go backwards but shifted the ball onto his favoured right foot and at some stage must have clocked the run of Mbappé, some forty metres away. Immediately upon spinning around, the wonderful, perfectly-weighted ball he then played with the outside of his right boot curved around the desperate lunges of both William Carvalho and Jose Fonte and sent Mbappé racing into the no-man’s land between the Portuguese backline and goalkeeper Rui Patricío. Mbappé, as quick as anybody in the sport, caught Nélson Semedo flat-footed and facing the wrong way, so it was only a question of whether Rui Patricío would make a dart to try to clear the danger. He did, albeit after a moment’s hesitation- understandable when Mbappé is the opponent in question- and this pause proved costly. Mbappé reached the ball first and his first touch, which would be considered heavy for most players but is simply intelligent for Mbappé, meant Patrício had little choice but to slide for the ball and risk bringing the forward down, if he did not want to let the forward burst past him for what would have been a certain goal. The contact in the end was slight and, in Patricio’s defence, not cynical, but given the momentum of each player it sent Mbappé to the deck and had the French in uproar, demanding the goalkeeper’s dismissal.
Nonetheless the referee, correctly avoiding the red-card-and-a-penalty double punishment, pointed to the spot and showed Patrício the yellow card. A few moments later the penalty was thumped into the roof of the net by Griezmann. Advantage France.
The Portuguese really let the game slip away from them when they failed to wake up from the restart. Upon receiving the ball from Ronaldo at kick-off, Fernandes dallied a moment too long and Griezmann, nicked the ball off him and set towards goal. The referee took little notice of a shriek from the stricken Fernandes- no contact was actually made with Fernandes- and Griezmann was rightly permitted to continue on his way. He made it as far as the edge of the penalty area before teeing off for the oncoming Wissam Ben Yedder, who until that point had been peripheral but let rip with a piledriver that walloped against the crossbar. The Portuguese defence, stunned, was nowhere near as fast to react to the rebound as Mbappé, who met the ball with his chest and buried the ball home to send the French supporters into raptures and the Portuguese utterly crestfallen.
The second half saw Portugal regroup and get back to playing very much on the front foot, remaining consistent in their aggression and intensity throughout the half despite various tactical tweaks and three substitutions. Still, as the old adage goes, goals win games and despite all their aggression and verve Portugal did not manage a single goal here.
Were we to be documenting where it all went wrong for Portugal in this competition, more analysis of the second half and Fernando Santos’ tactical and personnel choices would be in order. However, despite this defeat this evening, Portugal’s impressive first two performances- or more crucially, given today’s outcome, impressive first two results- mean that their four points and goal difference of +2 sees them through in second place. Germany, having beaten Bulgaria but failed to improve their goal difference sufficiently to leapfrog Portugal, remain in third place but progress as one of the stronger third-place finishers.
So in the end Bulgaria’s bad luck in being placed in this impossibly difficult group has been France, Portugal and Germany’s blessing. Thanks to the tournament’s 24-team structure, all three progress and will now face Turkey, Croatia and Holland, respectively. So whilst their paths now part and they make their way to different corners of Europe, few would be so sure as to bet against seeing two of the three meet again at Wembley in a couple of weeks’ time.
Man of the Match: William Carvalho