Foot & Soccer Soccer Match Reports, Football News
There’s a blockbuster day of football on Friday with two mouthwatering quarter-final games featuring Spain, Germany, Portugal and France.
At the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg, Portugal and France go head-to-head for a place in the semi-finals.
Portugal current form
Portugal topped Group F ahead of Turkey, Georgia and Czechia despite being on the wrong end of the shock result of the tournament so far – a 1-0 loss against Georgia in the final group game.
Several key players were rested for that one, but they all returned for the knockout tie against Slovenia.
The game versus Slovenia saw Portugal progress on penalties, but in normal time it was, for better or worse, the Cristiano Ronaldo show. The superstar missed a sitter through on goal, missed a penalty and then cried his eyes out.
He did show incredible resilience to score in the penalty shootout.
France current form
France have been extremely underwhelming so far.
They progressed to the knockout stage after finishing second in Group D behind Austria and ahead of the Netherlands and Poland.
On Monday, they defeated Belgium in the last 16 but only thanks to an own-goal from Jan Vertonghen.
They are yet to score a goal, from one of their own players, in open play in the tournament.
Roberto Martinez will need to consider the fact that the majority of his players featured in 120 minutes of action in the Slovenia match a few days ago, so fitness tests will be completed before kick-off.
It is likely he will field the same XI despite the struggles against the Slovenians.
That means a 212th cap for Ronaldo.
Diogo Costa will start behind a back four of Joao Cancelo, Pepe, Ruben Dias and Nuno Mendes.
Vitinha and Joao Palhinha will continue in the centre of midfield, with Rafael Leao, Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva supporting Ronaldo.
France boss Didier Deschamps will need to make at least one alteration to his starting XI as Adrien Rabiot is suspended following his booking versus Belgium.
His replacement will be dependent on what…
Source link : https://www.footballcritic.com/news/portugal-vs-france-euro-2024-quarter-final-prediction-team-to-win-form-news-and-more/5273
Author : [email protected] (Martin Macdonald)
Publish date : 2024-07-05 08:00:00
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