Perhaps one of the most heart wrenching moments of Euro24 so far was the reaction of Ronaldo when he missed a penalty in Portugal’s match against Slovenia, to say he was heartbroken is an understatement, but he has endeared himself even more to football fans everywhere due to his passion and love for his country.
This time last week Portugal were the form side of the tournament but a defeat to Georgia and a draw against Slovenia has changed things a little.
France haven’t exactly been pulling up trees with a string of unimpressive performances and if you think Gareth Southgate is getting some stick, take a look at what the French media are saying about Didier Deschamps, unlike Southgate though, Deschamps is giving back as good as he gets.
Odds and Predictions
The bookies have priced this one up very closely as you would probably expect, France are the 2.37 favourites, the odds for Portugal are 3.25 and the draw is 3.10.
We were already looking at this match before Portugal played Slovenia as we were convinced that Portugal would stroll through that game but we were wrong, we initially had Portugal down as the easy winners of this match as well but our opinion has changed.
We still think Portugal will go through but for the 90 minutes result we will have to go for the draw.
The odds of 3.10 are about right and the scoreline of 1 – 1 is where we will be putting our money, odds of 6.0 for the first one of our tips is fine.
There is no doubt that Ronaldo has a point to prove after his penalty miss so the last one of our predictions is for him to score at any time, the odds of 3.0 are bigger than we expected which is a pleasant surprise.
Comparison and Statistics from Past Meetings Between the Teams
Portugal and France have faced each other H2H a total of twenty eight times in their football history.
France have won nineteen of these matches, Portugal have won six, with three matches ending in a draw.
| Past Meetings | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Oct 2020 | france | 0-0 | portugal | UEFA Nations League |
| 10 Jul 2016 | portugal | 1-0 | france | UEFA Euro 2016 Final |
| 04 Sep 2015 | portugal | 0-1 | france | Friendly Game |
| 11 Nov 2014 | france | 2-1 | portugal | Friendly Game |
| 05 Jul 2006 | france | 1-0 | portugal | FIFA World Cup Semifinal |
Expected Line Ups
France are having a tournament very similar to England, a team bursting with talent but they just don’t look right.
The French players seem to be frightened of taking any chances whereas that doesn’t seem to be the case with Portugal.
It will be an interesting game with Ronaldo and Pepe setting the usual example of how it should be regarded as an honour to play for your country.
Portugal (4-3-3): Diogo Costa; João Cancelo, Pepe, Rúben Dias, Nuno Mendes; João Palhinha, Vitinha, Bruno Fernandes; Bernardo Silva, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rafael Leão
France (4-2-3-1): Mike Maignan; Jules Kounde, William Saliba, Dayot Upamecano, Theo Hernandez; N’Golo Kante, Adrien Rabiot; Ousmane Dembele, Antoine Griezmann, Marcus Thuram; Kylian Mbappe
How Far Will These Teams Progress in the Tournament?
We think that this will be the end of France in Euro24, and the end of Didier Deschamps as their manager.
We think the game will go to extra time and Portugal will go through to the semi final but as it will be either Spain or Germany waiting for them, it will be a tough ask to expect them to get to the final.
