The final match of the European Football Championship started in the stadium ‘Stade de France’ in Saint-Denis at this moment. France and Portugal are fighting for the right to become the strongest team of the Old World.
The teams that met in the battle for the title went the different ways to play in today's match.
France as the hostess of the tournament entered its final stage, bypassing the qualification. Appearing in the A Group, it defeated Romania and Albania with a score of 2:1 and 2: 0 respectively, and played in the goalless draw with Switzerland, which allowed the French to reach the stage of the playoffs from the first place. Then in the 1/8 finals of the tournament the hosts met with the Irish, whom they defeated with a score of 2:1. Then France met with the most important discovery of this championship - Iceland. This match ended with the defeat of the Scandinavians, who were able to respond to the five goals they scored just with two. The most difficult challenge to date for the French national team became the semi-finals, in which it played with Germany. The meeting ended with the defeat of the German team with a score of 0:2.
For France the finals of the European Championship will be the third in history. Prior to that the team was able to reach it in 1984 and 2000. The French triumphed in he both cases.
It was otherwise for the Portuguese team. According to the results of the qualifications, it managed to get confident in the Euro, scoring seven wins and losing only one match, which allowed the representatives of the Iberian Peninsula to get the first place. The Portuguese team stalled in the Championship itself. In the F Group it played in a draw with Iceland, Austria and Hungary with a score of 1: 1, 0: 0 and 3: 3. After that, Portugal finished in the third place in the group, but was able to continue participating in the tournament, becoming one of the four best teams among the teams occupied the penultimate places. In the 1/8 finals the team met with Croatia, which they defeated with a score of 1: 0, scoring just two minutes before the end of the second of the two additional periods of 15 minutes. Then in the quarterfinals a rival of Portugal became Poland. This match ended with a score 1: 1 in the main and extra time, in connection with which the teams had to beat the penalty series, in which the Pyrenean players prevailed with a score of 3: 5. They were more confident in the semifinals, where they played with Wales and scored two unanswered goals.
The current finals is the second in the history of Portugal. Prior to this the players reached the finals in 2004. Then the Greeks defeated the Portuguese with a score 0: 1.
Until today the teams of France and Portugal have played with each other for 24 times. At the same time during the vast majority of these meetings the luck was on the side of the hosts of this tournament, who gained 18 wins, one draw and only five defeats.
