Portugal reached the final!

The Portuguese national football team beat 2-0 Wales in the semi-final match and made it to the final of the Euro 2016. Fernando Santos’ players have recorded 5 draws and only 1 victory so far in the tournament, but who cares about it, after they qualified for the final game of the European championship.

That was maybe the best performance, which was shown by Portugal in the tournament. The Welshmen were more active during the first half and took several shots towards Rui Patricio, but the goalkeeper managed to keep his sheet clean. However, Portugal outplayed their opponents in the second half and deservedly won 2-0.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 3rd goal of the tournament in the 50th minute. It’s interesting that he jumped 2,61 metres high and his header shot was 71,3 km/h fast. Then, the Real Madrid’s forward provided a great assist to his teammate Nani, who acted instinctively and found the net for 2-0 just 3 minutes later. No matter how hard Gareth Bale tried to score a goal, he was denied by the perfect performance of Rui Patricio.

Now, the question is can Ronaldo win his first major international tournament. I am sure he still remembers the final against Greece in 2004, when Portugal lost 0-1 and became the runners-up in the European championship. Furthermore, they were the host nation in 2004.

Many people say that Portugal are incredibly lucky to get so far in the tournament and that they don’t deserve it. But, have you asked yourself the question how France reached the semi-finals? Firstly, they didn’t take part in the qualifiers, because they are the host nation. Then, their group was the easiest in the tournament – Albania, Switzerland and Romania! A victory against Ireland sent them into the quarter finals, where they played against the scared team of Iceland.

So, don’t underestimate Portugal’s record, because the Portuguese team totally outplayed Austria and Iceland, but were unlucky to finish with draws against them. Then, two deflections confused Rui Patricio against Hungary, which meant they had to finish with a draw again. But, Santos changed the tactics in the knockout stage of the tournament and here is the result! Portugal deservedly reached the final and now have the chance to change the history of their national football team, by winning their first major international tournament!