The winner of the UEFA European Football Championships has been decided. It was not defending World Cup Champion Germany, the Cinderella story of Iceland, hyped up England or even host Nation France. Out of the twenty-four countries that qualified to the final tournament, the team that opposed France in today’s final was seen as a bit of an enigma, as outside of striker Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal was interpreted as having a team of players either past their prime or too green to be effective. Portugal’s road to the final was particularly interesting because outside of their 2-0 victory over Wales in the Semifinal they either drew or won in extra time or penalty kicks in every game of the tournament. Another interesting thing about Portugal’s run to the title game is that their star Ronaldo scored just once the whole tournament but they found themselves, a good but not great team, in the final against France’s high-octane offense led by Antoine Griezmann and his 6 goal performance which netted him the tournament’s Golden Boot.
Portugal’s road to the final was particularly interesting because outside of their 2-0 victory over Wales in the Semifinal they either drew or won in extra time or penalty kicks in every game of the tournament. Another interesting thing about Portugal’s run to the title game is that their star Ronaldo scored just once the whole tournament but they found themselves a good but not great team in the final against France’s high-octane offense led by Antoine Griezmann and his 6 goal performance which netted him the tournament’s Golden Boot.
The match was scoreless through regulation but that did not mean that it was free of drama, about 20 minutes into the match Ronaldo collided knee on knee with Dimitri Payet. Although he attempted to return to the game twice, he was out of commission for the remainder of the match much to his own personal frustration and the disappointment of the worldwide television audience but as with all major sporting events, the show must go on even with it’s brightest star felled on an unfortunate happenstance play.
Although France had the lions share of the possession (53% to 47%) shots, and shots on target (18-7 for France versus 9-3 for the Portuguese side) it was scoreless through regulation and through the first half of extra-time. Then in the 109th minute, Eder of Portugal blasted the first and only goal of the night and the second latest goal in a EURO match since the tournament began for a 1-0 Portugal lead which they held onto in a win snapping a ten match losing streak against France.
With this result, Portugal has captured its first major championship ever, with some close calls along the way and Ronaldo has one slight edge over his rival Lionel Messi with this result as the tournament championship that had eluded them both for country now only pertains to Messi, who was also convicted of tax fraud earlier this week. Portugal also proved once again that defensive perfomances win trophies more often than offensive firepower.
