“Portugal was knocked out of the 2020-21 UEFA Nations League after a 1-0 defeat to France at the Estadio de Luz as N’Golo Kante’s strike put the world champions into the semi-finals.”
UEFA Nations League 2020-21: France shocked defending Winners Portugal Using a second-half goal from N’Golo Kante in Lisbon to Get to the semi-final of the ongoing National League. France dominated by the start but couldn’t find the back of the net. Anthony Martial came near a number of events in the first half, but the final touch eluded him.
Together with the 54th-minute attack, Kante broke his goal drought as he scored his second global goal — and his first since 2016.
The triumph for France also supposed that the top team A3 with 13 points from five games. Portugal — who’s been in great form — lost only their second game since the 2018 World Cup.
On joue ensemble, on court ensemble, on souffre ensemble, on GAGNE ENSEMBLE ???????????????? pic.twitter.com/yN78f1h9zu
— Antoine Griezmann (@AntoGriezmann) November 14, 2020
France coach Didier Deschamps said:
“Portugal is one of the strongest teams and it is, of course, one of our greatest performances of recent times.”
“We deserved the win and we have fulfilled our objective of finishing top. I’m very pleased with the players. They demonstrated tonight that France is still a great team,” he added.
Portugal coach Fernando Santos said:
“I don’t understand what went wrong in the first half, it was not exactly what I anticipated but it was my duty.”
“We were much better in the second half but conceded the goal that settled the match… we had three or four opportunities to equalize,” he added.
Cristiano Ronaldo flop performance:
The going has got very tough for Cristiano Ronaldo ever since he has broken up the 100-goal barrier to edge closer to Ali Daei’s all-time global goal-scoring record.
He fired blanks against Spain and France a month, missed the Sweden game since of COVID-19, came off the bench to score against Andorra in midweek, and misfired from France once more.
6 – Cristiano Ronaldo has never scored in 6 games against France, the opponent he has faced the most in his club and international career without scoring. Complex. #PORFRA pic.twitter.com/4FMDOXXLjl
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) November 14, 2020
The Portugal captain was back in the Seleccao lineup against the world champions but had been left frustrated due to the shortage of clear-cut opportunities. But this wasn’t for the dearth of support, however. Ronaldo simply couldn’t associate with a few of the crosses as they were either too high, or they did not get to him within the area, while his prowess at set-pieces also deserted him.
The Portugal captain has now gone nearly 450 minutes without scoring against Les Blues, a poor record for somebody of the stature. He will have another chance to erase the anomaly at the next year’s Euros when both sides will meet again since both France and Portugal have been drawn in the same group. But for now, Ronaldo needs to focus on the following game for Portugal.
