July 5 – Billed as Cristiano Ronaldo against Kylian Mbappé, tonight’s Portugal vs France Euro 2024 quarter final has shades of the Mbappé vs Lionel Messi 2022 World Cup final in Qatar.
It is the match-up of one of the biggest superstars (some would argue the biggest) the game has ever seen, against the heir apparent. When individual records are compared no-one will be able to say that the remarkable Mbappé was never pitched in a head-to-head duel with football’s greatest, even if it was at the close of their careers rather than the opening.
This Euros both Ronaldo and Mbappé share a commonality – they are both finding it hard to hit the back of the net, but have both scored from the spot.
While the French and Portugal games have lacked goalscoring fizz, there is no doubt that these are two world class teams with world class talent throughout their squads. This will not be like a group game where you sit around for long periods watching and waiting for the clearly superior team to score a goal.
Both teams like the ball at their feet and while they may not have scored goals in free-flowing abundance, they have created multiple chances against opposition who generally have showed little ambition.
The hope is that this quarter final will ignite early with two teams showing why they are among the best in the world.
France manager Didier Deschamps has seemed unconcerned by the French inability to score goals – they have just three to their name, two of them own-goals and one from the penalty spot.
He exudes the belief that there is almost an inevitability that goals will soon flow and that, probably, Mbappé will be leading the way.
“We’ve got the quality and talent, but there are a lot of teams that have that. At the highest level, there’s a need to be solid and work hard together. Everyone is progressing, and there’s a common denominator between all these matches: the athletic intensity being at the very highest level,” said Deschamps.
Portugal’s manager Roberto Martinez has similar quality and talent but while Deschamps has Mbappe, Anton Greizman, Ousmane Dembélé and Marcus Thuram to lead his line, Martinez does look a little too reliant on Ronaldo. Though he does at times seem to be like the kid in the playground – my ball, my house, my free kick.
What Martinez does have is the creative brilliance of Vitinha, Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva who can turn a match with a moment of magic that the rest of the mortals on the pitch can’t do. But in Hamburg tonight there are a number of immortals in display, not last the resurgent N’Golo Kante who is once again a lesson in perpetual motion.
It is the ability to open up space behind the defensive line that Martinez is targeting.
“They are very strong but might leave space behind the lines,” said Martinez.
“They can cause problems, but hopefully we will create more chances. The tournament now has different details, because you can win on penalties and you can create moments of individual quality.”
Historically the numbers are against the Portuguese. In 28 matches against the French they have only won six times having drawn three and lost 19. The last time these two sides met was in the 2021 European Championship where they drew 2-2. The year before the French had beaten the Portuguese 1-0 in the Nations League.
Whatever the result, brace yourselves for a spectacular night of Mbappe vs Ronaldo, it feels like it is time for the storm to break and for Europe’s biggest nations to shake off their sleepiness and turn on the entertainment.
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