[ad_1]
LISBON (Reuters) – France gave defending Nations League champion Portugal a rare defeat on Saturday, winning 1-0 in Lisbon on a goal from N’Golo Kante in the second half to reach the semi-finals of the competition at the expense of the current champions.
Anthony Martial missed three clear first-half chances for France before Kante scored just his second international goal in the 54th minute, and the first since 2016, to end Portugal’s streak of five consecutive clean sheets.
World champion France topped Group A3 with 13 points from five games, three ahead of Portugal and with the best head-to-head record giving them an impregnable lead. It was only Portugal’s second defeat since the 2018 World Cup.
“Given the quality of the opposition, it is of course one of our best performances in recent times,” French coach Didier Deschamps said of Portugal, which is the European champion.
“We deserved the victory and we met our goal of finishing first. I am very proud of the players. Tonight they showed that France is still a great team.”
Antoine Griezmann opened Martial’s first opportunity in the 12th minute with a slide-rule pass, but Portugal’s excellent goalkeeper Rui Patricio blocked it at point-blank range.
Martial then deflected Adrien Rabiot’s acrobatic effort toward the bar with his head and saw another brilliantly saved effort at point-blank range by Patricio from a Lucas Hernandez cross.
At the other end, Cristiano Ronaldo forced a dive from France captain Hugo Lloris and also blew a free kick that crashed directly into the wall.
France finally broke through just as Portugal seemed to prevail. Griezmann passed another ball to Rabiot, whose shot was parried by Patricio and Kante was on hand to score from the rebound.
Portugal had three opportunities to beg in the same attack, including a José Fonte header against the post, and Lloris made a one-handed save to stop a raked shot from Joao Moutinho, who then watched his center dodge three forwards as France held on.
“I don’t know what went wrong in the first half, it wasn’t what I expected but it was my responsibility,” Portugal coach Fernando Santos said.
“We were better in the second half, but then we conceded the goal that scored the game … we had three or four chances to equalize.”
(Written by Brian Homewood; Edited by Ken Ferris)
[ad_2]
