By Andrew Warshaw
July 11 – They only won one game in regulation time and didn’t have shot on target in the final until the 80th minute. Yet what Greece did to them 12 years ago in Lisbon, Portugal have now done to France: upsetting the host nation to become European champions and wrecking a nationwide party in the process.
In shaking off their reputation as the bridesmaids of European football – this was their fourth European Championship semi-final or final in the past five tournaments and no team had played more games without lifting the title – Portugal, who also lost in the semis of the 2006 World Cup, shattered the hopes of a suffering nation whose footballers had brought back the feelgood factor after the horror of terrorism.
Indeed French skipper Hugo Lloris spoke of how Euro 2016 had helped the population “escape” the suffering of the Paris attacks in November, in which 130 people died and hundreds more were injured.
For a month, Didier Deschamps’ team had gradually built momentum, overcoming nerves and initial tinkering of personnel, taking crucial chances, playing for each other. Only one hurdle remained but with Antoine Griezmann having an off-day, the pressure finally told.
After an unspectacular tournament, finishing third in their group to sneak into the knockout stage, Portugal’s triumph hardly set the pulse racing. Yet for guts, determination, tenacity, resilience and organisation, Christiano Ronaldo’s team just about deserved it – if only because of what befell their superstar captain.
Rarely can one player have ever shed so many tears in the same game for entirely different reasons. When Ronaldo was carried off after injuring his left knee in an early challenge with Dmitri Payet, his contribution cruelly brought to a premature end despite two attempts to play through the pain, his and his country’s dreams seemed dashed.
But at the final whistle, his knee heavily strapped, he broke down again, this time shedding tears of joy as he at last collected the major international honour that will fill a gap in his trophy cabinet thanks to substitute Eder’s wonder strike in extra time. An honour that had always eluded him in a long and distinguished career and one that still eludes his arch rival Lionel Messi.
While the Portuguese proved that they were more than a one-man team, contrast that with the gut-wrenching disappointment of the French who went into the final on a wave of emotion and expectation but who were one-paced with no thrust when it mattered most.
Deschamps, who won the World Cup in 1998 as captain and the European Championship two years later, summed up the thoughts of a nation. “I’ll need some time to really digest this,” said Deschamps, most of whose decisions throughout the tournament had been spot on but whose substitutions and tactics in the final were left wanting.
“We weren’t rewarded but I’ve had an incredible group to work with and I’m very sad for them. There is no way of reducing their disappointment.”
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