Portugal Beats Hosts, France 1-0 In Extra Time And Without Ronaldo To Win EURO 2016

An epic final it was at the Stade de France tonight as Portugal by a stroke of opportunity defeated France 1-0 in extra time. It was all tears for the host nation and the massive turnout of supporters who expected their team to clinch the title. France played a very delightful and fantastic game with numerous opportunities at goal while Portugal’s play was  mostly defensive.

France had a great start but a hard tackle of Cristiano Ronaldo by two Frenchmen in the 7th minute almost made Portugal give up hope as it looked like he would be sent off. With no visible presence in the game, in the 23rd minute, Ronaldo signaled coach, Fernando Santos to replace him. It was all tears as Ronaldo was carried away in a stretcher and hailed by both the Portuguese and French fans . Ricardo Qaresma came in to take his place.

The first half had seen the men in blue, France, bombard the Portugese with series of attacks especially by Sissoko and Griezmann who played  football a more as an art than a sport.

Portugal began to awaken in the second half and had a great opportunity but goalkeeper Hugo Lloris came to the rescue as he punched and caught a ball that came violently at him twice. Payet came off for 20 year old Coman in the 57th minute and the young lad began doing wonders with series of attacks.

In the 78th minute of the very close-to-call game, a substitution was made by both sides with Giroud coming out for Gignac and Renato Sanches excusing the game for Eder. Gignac began to make good work with the ball and displayed nice chemistry with Coman. The game got tougher with few minutes to the 90-minute mark.

Not surprisingly, the Euro 2016 final went into extra time and both sides were strong contenders. France had good opportunities and Griezmann was still in the limelight. First half had gone and Portugal had almost its entire team booked with yellow cards while playing aggressive defense.  Second half of extra time wasn’t so different from the first with the game being highly contested. It was in the 109th minute that Eder surprised Europe with a blazing low shot outside the 18-yard box, that beat the French goalie.

It’s all celebration in Lisbon as Portugal has won their first major title after a track record of disappointing appearances. France had won the EURO championship in 1984 and 2000.