Portuguese Football in English
Portugal qualified for the final of Euro 2016 after a dominant performance resulted in a 2-0 victory over Wales.
An authoritative display was translated into second-half goals by Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani, and after Ronaldo's thumping header hit the net, the win was never truly in doubt.
The Seleção will play either Germany or France in the final at the Stade France in Paris on Sunday evening.
For the second time in four years the Seleção are potentially 90 minutes away from reaching the European Championship final.
Unusually for Portugal at such a deep stage of a major tournament, the "Nação Valente" will start the match favourites.
Wales is the team Portugal must overcome to earn the right to play either France of Germany in the Euro 2016 final in Paris on Sunday.
Portugal are making few friends at Euro 2016.
Thousands of media outlets all over the world need little encouragement to publish disparaging articles about Seleção captain Cristiano Ronaldo, thus in the first week of Euro 2016 we were treated to an all-too-familiar character assassination of the Real Madrid star after his frustration-driven remarks in the immediate aftermath of Portugal’s draw against Iceland.
The end of the group stage and the knockout phase has brought a slew of less-then-complimentary assessments of Portugal’s performance at the tournament, with many analysts pointing to the paucity of attacking football and the fact the team has reached the semi-final without winning a game in 90 minutes.
For Portugal coach Fernando Santos and his players, the negative press is of little consequence. “I prefer to play ugly and be here, rather than play pretty football and be at home,” said Santos on the weekend, the exact same phrase repeated by midfielder Danilo Pereira at yesterday’s press conference.
Ricardo Quaresma made the difference once more for Portugal against Poland in Marseille. This time scoring the winning penalty to send Portugal into the semi-finals.
Robert Lewandowski opened the scoring for Poland after just 2 minutes. Renato Sanches equalised on his first start for Portugal after half an hour. The game went into extra time once again and then onto penalties.
Jakub Błaszczykowski was the unlucky Poland player to have his penalty saved, after Cristiano Ronaldo, Renato Sanches, João Moutinho and Nani all dispatched theirs.
“I’m not going home until after 11 July, and I’m not talking about holidays,” boldly proclaimed Portugal coach Fernando Santos early in the tournament.
The wily manager has, unusually for a Seleção coach, been unafraid to talk up his team’s chances of thriving in the tournament ever since taking the job in September 2014.
After three draws in Group F, his chutzpah looked at risk of being rendered nothing but empty words, but the dramatic win in a gruelling match against arguably the best performers in the group phase, Croatia, has injected Portuguese fans with confidence that Euro 2016 may yet provide them with something very special.
