Solid France dethrone uninspired Portugal
France handed defending Nations League champions Portugal a rare defeat on Saturday, winning 1-0 in Lisbon with N'Golo Kante's second-half strike to reach the competition's final four at the trouble of the holders.
Anthony Martial missed three clear-cut first half chances for France before Kante scored only his second international goal in the 54th minute, and his first since 2016, to get rid of Portugal's run of five successive clean sheets.
World champions France went top of Group A3 with 13 points from five games, three ahead of Portugal and with the better head-to-head record to provide them an unassailable lead. It had been only Portugal's second defeat because the 2018 World Cup.
"Given the caliber of the opposition, it's of course among our best performances of recent times," France coach Didier Deschamps explained of Portugal, who will be the European champions. "We deserved the win and we've fulfilled our objective of completing top. I'm very proud of the players. They proved tonight that France are still an excellent team."
Rui Patricio took centre stage in the first half, saving superbly on two occasions from Anthony Martial. When the Manchester United striker did find a way past him, with a close-range header, the crossbar found the Portugal No. 1's rescue.
France finally broke through just as Portugal were imposing themselves. Griezmann slipped another ball through to Rabiot whose shot was parried by Patricio and Kante was readily available to score from the rebound.
Portugal had three chances go begging in the same attack, including a good Jose Fonte header against the post, and Lloris made a good one-handed save to parry a good raking drive from Joao Moutinho, who then saw his cross evade three forwards as France held out.
"I don't know what went wrong in the first half, it wasn't what I expected nonetheless it was my responsibility," said Portugal coach Fernando Santos. "We had been better in the next half but then conceded the target which settled the game... we had 3 or 4 chances to equalise."
France legend Jean Pierre Papin was first packed with praise for the display, noting that it was indeed the midfield that had paved just how for this success.
"I like this environment with Rabiot, Kante and Pogba. Pogba was effective in transition and provided a hand behind. Rabiot, higher up, was very very good on the kept and Kante a lot more so. He was in front, behind, he obtained the goal. He's the cornerstone of the team. But today, I observed a team, not a sum of talents."
