The second part of the double header of quarter finals at Euro 2024 on Friday sees the 2018 world champions France taking on the 2016 winners of this tournament in the form of Portugal in an eagerly anticipated clash in Hamburg.
The winners of this match will face off against either Germany or Spain in the semi-final on Tuesday night so the stakes are high for two teams who know exactly how to go about winning a competition of this kind.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the BBC1 channel in the UK with the build-up to the quarter final beginning at 7.20pm ahead of the 8pm kick off.
Portugal
The Portuguese went into this tournament fancied by many to go all the way. They might still do that but there is a strong sense that they are going to need to find much more than they have shown so far. To be fair to them, they have managed their way into the knockout stages without too much fuss but they didn’t really show much sign of breaking down an admittedly stubborn Slovenia defence in the round of 16 which has seen some doubts about them grow.
The positive for Portugal is they have looked solid defensively but they have faced nothing like the threat that they could well be exposed to here so it will be interesting to see how that holds up. There is no shortage of quality up front but they could really do with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring a goal and getting his confidence up because way too much is breaking down in front of goal at the minute whenever the ball ends up with him.
France
Clearly France went into the tournament expected to go very deep but much like their opponents here they haven’t hit their stride at all and you wonder if this is a tournament too far or whether they are going to click into life at any minute. To be fair to the French, while their results suggest that they have struggled and laboured through matches, the statistics would paint a very different picture but they have lacked the ruthless edge we would expect from them.
Defensively France have arguably been the best team at the tournament which will bode well because surely there will be a time where their attack clicks into groove and someone takes a bit of a beating. That attack hasn’t been helped by the issues with Kylian Mbappe and his injury and then subsequently his mask but at some point he’ll come good and when he does whoever it is against will be in a bit of danger.
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Team News
Portugal have no new injury concerns leading into this match but it might be that Roberto Martinez freshens his side up a little after they went 120 minutes just four days ago. Diogo Jota would be an obvious starting option.
France will be without Adrien Rabiot after the midfielder picked up a second booking in the win over Belgium last time out. Dider Deschamps looks set to call for Eduardo Camavinga as his replacement. Kingsley Coman is away after the birth of his child.
Betting
I’m not expecting a match as good as perhaps the billing would suggest on paper here. Both teams look bang on it defensively but not really quite at the races in attack. Portugal haven’t scored in their last two matches and France have only scored one goal themselves from open play in the entire tournament. I suspect this could be one of those nervy contests where the two if not cancel each other out play not to lose rather than to risk winning.
I think I would rather have the defences on side here rather than the attacking units and the longer this one goes I think it could really turn into one of those edgy games that ends up going to extra time and penalties. The goal line for this one is 2.25 and there is just about enough juice in the price for me to get involved in the under. This has 0-0 or 1-0 either way written all over it but I’ll have a breakaway second late on on my side just in case it is needed but in what I expect to be an uninspiring game I’ll play the under.
Tips
Back Under 2.25 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
