Winning ugly is a term beloved of professional sportsmen because, for them, the result must always come first and, if you can’t win the beauty contest, at least make sure you win the game. That said, Portugal really are taking the piss aren’t they?
Portugal 2 Wales 0
At least they actually won a game in regulation time for the first time at these championships, but what a dreadful, joyless grind it was. Credit to them for stifling a Welsh side that had shredded the Belgians, but for a team that has such attacking potential in it, to win games purely by dint of attrition is a dispiriting way of going about things.
From their perspective, it’s justifiable enough I’m sure, especially given the way in which the entertainers of the past, back in the Figo era, always fell short. But from a golden generation to a dreary dozen seems a real fall from grace, whatever the rewards.
As good teams, whatever their style, do, they succeeded in ensuring the game was played on their terms, denying Wales the chance to play the sharp moving football that has brought them so far. From there, they were happy to play it long from the back and leave it to Ronaldo, Sanches and Nani to use their pace to make something happen.
In the end, it was two goals in three minutes from the big names just after the interval that settled the tie for once Portugal got in front, Wales never for a moment looked like getting back on terms.
Ronaldo On Song
It was, of course, Ronaldo who got the crucial first goal. If we haven’t seen him as the creator of extraordinary footballing moments in this tournament, then he has slowly come into increasingly good form as a fine finisher. He is a genuinely wonderful header of the ball and, in the 50th minute, after losing his marker, Chester, at a corner, he rose like he was on Peter Pan wires to thunder the ball into the roof of the net.
His next action was to hopelessly misconnect with a shot three minutes later, but where nothing was going right for him in the first couple of games, now he’s in a spell where he could fall down a toilet and still come up with a bar of Hershey’s, his poor effort dropping perfectly for Nani to jab in from close range.
Wales will be deeply frustrated that they conceded two such poor goals, but equally, they will rue the fact that they offered so little in the opposite direction. The loss of Ramsey to suspension was a disaster for them ahead of the game and the absence of his link up play and his understanding with Bale simply took away Wales’ cutting edge.
Stunning Campaign
It’s been a stunning campaign for them but a small nation without real depth cannot do without its finest players and hope to prosper. So it proved this evening and a remarkable month finally came to an end.
So it’s Portugal who march on to the final, and this from the least promising of beginnings. They still fail to set the pulses racing – or barely beating in truth – but they have found an extremely effective formula and neither France nor Germany will take them lightly.
How ironic it would be if, in his comparative dotage, when the flamboyant majesty of his prime is deserting him, Ronaldo finally got his hands on an international winner’s medal. It’s all about peaking at the right time in tournaments.
Germany 0 France 2
It’s a tired old cliché, that one about football fans being the twelfth man, but on rare nights, it’s one that can rise up and show you the last vestiges of truth which still cling to it. For in Marseille this evening, though the French national team ultimately came through as just the better side over 90 pulsating minutes, through the first half when Germany threatened to overrun them, it was the France support that kept their side from being trampled underfoot and gave them the opportunity to stand up and claim victory and a place in the Euro 2016 final.
It was a fascinating game of football, infinitely better than the previous night’s fare and a fitting climax to the much tougher half of the tournament’s draw that had already accounted for Spain and Italy. The French actually started quite well and almost produced the goal of the tournament in the seventh minute, slick passing and movement ending with Griezmann unable to get enough on his shot, Neuer saving comfortably.
From there, the Germans stepped it up a gear and with some forensic passing, rolled the French deeper and deeper into their own half. Plenty of teams might have buckled, but this French side is starting to resemble its predecessors of 1998 for its grit and resolve.
Backed by that raucous crowd, they stood firm and arguably still produced the best opportunities of the half, despite the German territorial dominance, but even then, they’d have been happy enough to get off at 0-0. Only they went one better in first half injury time, when Schweinsteiger unaccountably followed Boateng’s lead in the previous game and raised his hand as a corner came in, the ball glancing away off his fist as he leapt. A soft penalty perhaps, but the right call nonetheless.
Griezmann
With the referee pointing out that there would be no time for anything but the kick – no rebounds – Griezmann had to be precise with his effort and he was just that, sending Neuer the wrong way. At such moments, you start to believe that their name might just be on the cup.
Setbacks like that rarely affect the German psyche though and in the second half, they continued to plug away relentlessly, continued to put France under pressure. But there was something more confident about the home side, better able to play on the front foot, better equipped to test Germany at the other end.
Crucially, France’s big players have grown in stature as the competition has gone on, notably Griezmann and Pogba, both left out of the second group game you might recall. Both have been better for that chastening experience too and are now performing at the very highest level, performing like men who realise this is their opportunity to experience something quite extraordinary and who aren’t going to let that pass them by.
Pogba
It was Pogba who grasped the moment to settle the game, his raw athleticism seeing him eat up the ground across the German penalty area to dispossess Kimmich and then float in a teasing cross that drew Neuer into a rare error, flapping at the ball, pushing it out to Griezmann who produced a clever finish with the sole of the boot to double the lead in the 72nd minute.
Germany refused to accept defeat and continued to press, Lloris making one fabulous save late on, but this was very much France’s night. Come Sunday evening, it could be very much their tournament.
