Either team has been a thorn in our side forever. Euro '84 Semi Final elimination by France WC '98 Qualifying draw where the ref gave a bogus red to help Germany equalize Euro '00 Semi Final elimination by France WC '06 Semi Final elimination by France and third place match loss to Germany Euro '08 Quarter Final elimination by Germany Euro '12 Group stage loss to Germany (Portugal still advanced out of group) WC '14 Group Stage loss to Germany (Portugal eliminated based on heavy Goal diff of match vs Germany) This qualifying round we played France in a friendly twice and loss both matches. Not easy, we are heavy underdogs. But it is a Final and anything can happen.
Yup! Forca Portugal! Portugal will certainly be underdogs no matter who wins but I feel that can only be a good thing as this may make them play a bit more focused.
Hard work is what got us here and with that being said we certainly are going to give it our all Here's to hoping the other game today goes to 120 minutes
As far as I understand this defeat (in the context of the whole tournament) was the final straw that convinced the Germans they needed to completely revamp their entire youth soccer structure. So in a way the Germans can thank us.
Hoping for a final against Germany. It would mean we would be automatically through to the Confederations Cup and France is looking stronger right now.
the pain of 2004 still stings. Really hope we make amends for that with a glorious win here. but yeah, needless to say we are MASSIVE MASSIVE underdogs. Strangely I have a better gut feeling going into this final than I did in 2004. Still remember the sinking feeling, I had a suspicion at the time that Greece would surprise us again.
It goes without saying that we are underdogs to either Germany or France. However, if I had to pick I'd rather play Germany. Home-field advantage is huge and if France beats Germany they'll be massively motivated. Also, Germany is likely to be the less fresh of the 2 teams after that exhausting game against Italy (and where they lost 2 starters). Finally, I think we match up a bit better against Germany than against France. France's midfield has a combo of speed/trickery (Griez and Payet) and beast strength (Pogba) that we have not encountered and that we'd have a much harder time containing compared to the Motric/Rakitic combo we neutralized earlier in the tourney and harder than the Kroos/PigFarmer/Ozil/Y that Germany will put together. Also, we are much less predictable than last time we played Germany 2 years ago. Our MF can look totally different depending on who's on the pitch and we can switch from bunker-MF to possession-press-MF in a pinch. If Pepe is 100% our squad will probably be near 100% and have an extra day of rest. For all these reasons I actually don't think we are nearly as massively underdogs as the pundits would see it.
Hopefully the fact that there's literally no pressure on Portugal outside of whatever pressure it places on itself will lead to a special performance. For Portugal, Sunday's match couldn't be more different from the 2004 final.
I hope France and Germany finished with nine man a piece 120 minutes and one of them lose on penalties
I think Portugal Team is a lot better than many give them credit for I mean they have Ronaldo best forward in the world , Pepe one of the best centre backs in the world Good players like Nani Quaresma A solid midfield , with young talents like João Mario , Sanches , William, Danilo etc Raphael has been one of the best lbs this tournament maybe the best I said it before this is our best squad since 2006 and it's proving to be true . This team Also has depth unlike some past ones This narrative of portuga being a average team is far from the truth and is perpetuated by the biased British media simply because we lack epl players . 3 of these players lost the u21 final last year on penalties and crushed Germany 5-0. Juventus Madrid and Barcelona are all after Andre Gomes . Sanches is the best young player of the tournament . I donno I feel like we are being sorely underrated .
Man....I remember that day like the back of my hand. It felt like a funeral. Rainy weather, and i puked like 4 times. It was one of the worst days of my life. I was also like 15 so yeah, i cried.
British media predicted Wales To beat us they predicted Croatia to beat us and Poland as well Maybe they'll get their wish in the final as we will be meeting a team above our level . They think players have to be in the epl to be good when our midfielders in the primeira liga are more talented than crappy England . Imagine if Sanches was English ? They'd proclaim him the new Pele
That was one of the worst day of my life , aside from the death of some loved ones. I hope I'm not as sad if we end up losing this final
I wish that was the worst day of my life Screw Greece, that was over 12 years ago. Lets just win this crap
Hmm, can't believe they called that as a PK. Borderline. Esp. compared to the no calls on Ronaldo in the previous few games. #homefieldadvantage? Also, that was a shocking domination that Germany put on France in that half. It's shocking to see France in the lead.
Unbelieveable, Germany dominated that first half except for the first few minutes where France came in all guns blazing. Then at the very end they get a horrible penalty, just makes me think of the 3 penalties we could've had that were much much worse than that. 1-0 to France, reminds me of that BS penalty in 2006 against us.
I think it was a clear PK. Took a bunch of angles but one clearly showed handball, and hands up like that? 100% penalty IMO I don't know what sport the Germans think they're playing.