The French team faces Portugal in the quarter-finals of Euro 2024, Friday at 9 p.m. On the eve of the match, no favorite emerges among the supporters: the Blues have a disappointing game and Portugal qualified on penalties…
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France-Portugal: the revenge of the 2016 final, lost at home by the Blues. It’s the quarter final match of the Euro in Germany, Friday July 5, 2024 at 9 p.m. Didier Deschamps’ team, disappointing since the start of the competition, is still there despite everything.
And it’s a certainty: the two teams have, for the moment, not really reassured the supporters. At the time of taking off for Hamburg, where the match will be played, franceinfo met some followers of the Seleçao, in Marienfeld, about fifty kilometers from the Blues’ camp. Here, the same setting for both teams: you have to cross the German countryside to reach this hotel built in a former monastery. The sky is gray, it’s raining and the bursts of photographers are all targeting Christiano Ronaldo.
Along with Kylian Mbappé, these are the two names that constantly come up in journalists’ questions. Nuno Mendes, defender of the Portuguese national team and PSG, answers them: “It’s Ronaldo’s last Euro, we have everything to give him this gift. And to stop Mbappé, I think it’s going to be complicated…” he smiled at a press conference.
A cautious opinion, as the French football star is – for the moment – missing out on his Euro. But even if the Blues are laborious and clumsy, no one on the Portuguese side is proclaiming themselves favourites. Ricardo, a Seleçao supporter living in Germany, drove an hour to try to catch a glimpse of his idols. And he confides: “France is France! We have Mbappé, we have Griezmann, it’s like Ronaldo… In a few moments, they can do something extraordinary, it’s always scary.”
The reason: Portugal is also struggling to live up to its status as a contender for the final victory of the championship. It emerged victorious on penalties against Slovenia in the previous round, but without shining.