DBasia.news – France secured one ticket to the top four of the UEFA Nations League after a 1-0 win over Portugal in the Division A Group 3 (A3) match at the Da Luz Stadium, Lisbon, Saturday local time or Sunday morning, WIB.
The match was tight at the Benfica headquarters. The hosts had 51 percent of the ball. Cristiano Ronaldo and colleagues also recorded 18 kicks and six were on target, but none of them broke into Hugo Lloris’s goal.
A new goal was born in the second half from an unexpected player, N’Golo Kante. Thanks to this result Didier Deschamps’ France became the first team to qualify for the semi-finals of the UEFA Nations League, breaking a two-year record and Portugal never losing 20 games.
“Looking at the quality of the opponent, of course this is one of our best performances lately,” said Didier Deschamps after the match ended.
“We deserved to win and we fulfilled our goal of finishing top (in the group). I am very proud of the players. They proved tonight that France is still a great team.”
Meanwhile, the Portuguese coach, Fernando Santos regretted his team’s failure to convert opportunities into goals against France.
“I don’t know what went wrong in the first half, it’s not what I expected but it’s my responsibility. We played better in the second half, but then conceded a goal that finished the game, we had three or four chances to equalize,” added Santos.
Les Bleus are now at the top of Group 3 of the Nations League League with 13 points from five matches, followed by Portugal (10 points), Croatia (three points) and Sweden (three points).
Meanwhile for Kante it was his second goal from 44 caps for the French national team that he has defended from 2016, plus the first goal in 365 days. Not only good at defending, maintaining strength in the middle, Kante can also be a solution to score goals from the second line.