Euro 2024: For the French team and its leaders, facing Portugal, it's time to be great

Mbappé et les Bleus doivent monter le volume, ce vendredi, face au Portugal. MAXPPP – GEORGI LICOVSKI

Eight years after the final won by the Seleçao at the Stade de France, France meets Portugal this Friday, July 5 (9 p.m.) in Hamburg. To continue dreaming of a future, the Blues, solid but ineffective, must raise their voice. And find their leaders, Mbappé and Griezmann.

At the entrance to a street, a barrier. And these words written in German: "Prohibited for under 18s and women". In Hamburg, the red light district of Sankt Pauli is as famous for its anti-fascist and anti-racist football club as for its underworld life. And its wild nights. In this city in northern Germany, the quarter-final of the Euro between Portugal and France, this Friday, will be visible to everyone, and fortunately. But it could well give birth to a burning shock, where history, the stakes and the big players merge in a cocktail forbidden to the less daring.

"I am convinced that it will be a big match tomorrow, warned Didier Deschamps on Thursday. Historically, these have always been close matches."

Very often tight

France and Portugal, the duels punctuated most of the major campaigns of the two countries for the better and sometimes the worse. 1984, 2000, 2006, 2016: in forty years, direct elimination match confrontations have resulted in two titles for the Blues and one for the Seleçao, gleaned at the Stade de France eight years ago in the middle of rsquo;an ocean of tears (0-1 ap). Three times out of four, too, there was an overtime session. Between the two nations, the links are tenuous. They do not loosen easily.

It will be necessary this Friday evening, in the second largest port in Europe. But if the Lusitanians rowed against Slovenia, defeated on penalties in the round of 16 (0-0, tab 3-0), it is more the French who have not yet cast off. Netherlands (0-0), Poland (1-1) or Belgium (1-0): the Tricolores gave an impression of solidity and overall mastery but without offensive power and intensity.

"Today, that's enough, but with the level increasing, without saying that Portugal is superior to Belgium, improving our efficiency, c& ;rsquo;is important", acknowledged the coach, without worrying about the criticisms about the quality of play.

"A little harder moment" for Griezmann

The configuration should be different on Friday. Driven by its ball possession, the highest in this Euro, Portugal is an animal of another pedigree. With a lion, Cristiano Ronaldo, and a slew of predators, from Bernardo Silva to Rafael Leao via Bruno Fernandes. For a jungle of dangers. "All need to be watched. We are not going to make this mistake of only targeting one player, swore Kylian Mbappé.

Holland and the Red Devils also had arguments. But they had chosen caution against the Blues. "Will Portugal have the same attitude ? I don't know", asks “DD”, who has other questions in mind. The replacement of Adrien Rabiot, suspended, and undoubtedly replaced in the middle by Eduardo Camavinga, is a capital one. The performance of the leaders, Kylian Mbappé and Antoine Griezmann, is much more sensitive.

Diminished by his mask, “Kyky” only scored from the penalty spot and conceded "not having all the legs". For “Grizou”, apart from a clumsiness never before seen, it’s the head and a certain spleen which worries. "He is not depressed, I reassure you", Deschamps played down. &quot ;It's a little harder time for him", added the captain, judging "unfair"< /em> the "lack of recognition".
For both, standard bearers of so many ambitions and past successes, as for the Blues, all it would take is a spark. The moment is perfect. Because it’s the one for the grown-ups, when the barriers come down.