MX23RW : Tuesday, April 23 23:23:27| >> :600:307247:307247:
[monks data]
Portugal national football team
European Championship | Group Stage
Jun 23, 2021 at 8pm UK
Puskás Aréna
France national football team

Portugal
2 - 2
France

Ronaldo (31' pen., 60' pen.)
FT(HT: 1-1)
Benzema (45+2' pen., 47')
Lloris (27'), Hernandez (36'), Griezmann (40'), Kimpembe (83')

Didier Deschamps insists there is more to come from France

Didier Deschamps insists there is more to come from France
© Reuters
Braces from Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo saw the sides finish 2-2 in their final group game.

France manager Didier Deschamps warned their Euro 2020 rivals there is plenty more to come from the world champions ahead of the knockout stage.

A 2-2 draw with Portugal ensured Les Bleus finished top of Group F with five points and set up a meeting in the round of 16 with Switzerland on Monday.

Karim Benzema's double cancelled out a brace of Cristiano Ronaldo penalties but France were far from their best with Kylian Mbappe still to get off the mark and Everton defender Lucas Digne set to join Ousmane Dembele in being ruled out of the rest of the tournament due to injury.

Deschamps said: "In terms of points, we are first. Maybe other teams gave a better impression than the French team but now it is a new competition that starts.

"The first match against Germany was really important for us and to win this one point against Hungary allowed us even before this match to be qualified but as I said to the players we don't want to do any calculations because we don't want to take any risks.

"We have seen everything could change very quickly in this group. Of course we didn't do everything well all the time and we can improve some things."

A positive for France was Benzema scoring his first international goals since 2015 after the Real Madrid forward received a surprise recall before the European Championships got under way and he was happy to silence the doubters.

He added: "I knew as soon as I would be in the national team, the critics would come out – that is part of the football game but I never give up.

"As soon as I put my feet on the pitch I want to score and today I managed to do that. But I am training a lot. It was always like that, even when I was a little kid.

"Today everyone was waiting for this goal and that was some kind of extra motivation for me. Of course there is another pressure than when you play for your club because it is your whole country but for me it is a great pleasure."

Portugal occupied every position in the group during their 2-2 draw with France on a dramatic night but eventually finished as one of the best third-placed teams and take on Belgium – the number one ranked side in the world – next in Sevilla on Sunday.

The round of 16 clash will give Ronaldo the chance to become the record goalscorer at international level after he equalled Iran's Ali Daei's tally of 109 with a brace against France.

Boss Fernando Santos struggled to hide his frustration at a quick turnaround, especially with Belgium concluding their group on Monday.

"Resting is very important. We will have to mitigate this 48-hour difference," he said.

"We want to recuperate the players and have them fresh for the next match. I thought for what they played today, they have managed to recharge their mental batteries and right now we have to eliminate the fatigue.

"We are going to face very high temperatures but this is not a handicap for us. We are going to study our opponent. We already know them but we will see what changed and we will prepare this match with our idea to progress."

ID:452519: cacheID:452519:1false2false3false:QQ:: from db desktop :LenBod:restore:5142:No Data Analysis info
Restore Data
Share this article now:
Cristiano Ronaldo in action for Portugal in June 2021
Read Next:
Cristiano Ronaldo equals international goalscoring record in France draw
>
rhs 2.0
Today's games header
10am
Munar
Borges
10am
Navone
Popyrin
10am
Vukic
Daniel
10am
Bouzas Maneiro
Badosa
10am
Davis
Sherif
10am
Putintseva
Yuan
10am
Stephens
Trevisan
10am
Zhu
Jimenez Kasintseva
11.30am
Altmaier
Landaluce
11.30am
Rinderknech
Shevchenko
11.30am
Safiullin
Seyboth Wild
11.30am
Arango
Anisimova
11.30am
Sorribes Tormo
Pera
11.30am
Zhang
Rogers
12pm
Osaka
Minnen
12pm
Vekic
Siegemund
1pm
Darderi
Monfils
1pm
Karatsev
Marozsan
1pm
Van Assche
Bergs
1pm
Linette
Cocciaretto
1pm
Wang
Tomova
1pm
Wang
Dolehide
1.30pm
Dart
Bucsa
1.30pm
Raducanu
Lourdes Carle
2.30pm
Bronzetti
Gracheva
2.30pm
Frech
Cristian
2.30pm
Hibino
Krueger
3pm
Coric
Hassan
3pm
Kokkinakis
Draper
3pm
Nakashima
Bagnis
3pm
Van De Zandschulp
Eubanks
4pm
Baptiste
Saville
4pm
Bejlek
Blinkova
4pm
Errani
Wozniacki
4pm
Montgomery
Avanesyan
4.30pm
Klein
Llamas Ruiz
4.30pm
Burel
Danilovic
5pm
Moutet
Shang
5.30pm
Diaz Acosta
Shapovalov
6pm
Andreeva
Townsend
Tables header RHS

Group A

TeamPWDLPTS
1 Germany Germany00000
2 Hungary Hungary00000
3 Scotland flag Scotland00000
4 Switzerland Switzerland00000

Group B

TeamPWDLPTS
1 Albania national flag Albania00000
2 Croatia Croatia00000
3 Italy Italy00000
4 Spain Spain00000

Group C

TeamPWDLPTS
1 Denmark Denmark00000
2 England flag England00000
3 Serbia Serbia00000
4 Slovenia Slovenia00000

Group D

TeamPWDLPTS
1 Austria Austria00000
2 France France00000
3 Netherlands Netherlands00000
4 Poland Poland00000

Group E

TeamPWDLPTS
1 Belgium Belgium00000
2 Romania Romania00000
3 Slovakia Slovakia00000
4 Ukraine Ukraine00000

Group F

TeamPWDLPTS
1 Czech Republic Czech Republic00000
2 Georgia Georgia00000
3 Portugal Portugal00000
4 Turkey Turkey00000


Sports Mole provides in-depth previews and predictions for every match from the biggest leagues and competitions in world football.
Argentina's Lionel Messi kisses the World Cup trophy after collecting the Golden Ball award on December 18, 2022Sign up for our FREE daily preview newsletter direct to your inbox!