The semi-final match that the Blues will play on Wednesday against Morocco will be the seventh in the history of the French national team. In 2006, the confrontation with Portugal was particularly tense.
Six years after the conclusion of the Euro semi-final match amid heated controversy, the result of the penalty kick awarded to the Blues in the last moments for extending the hand of Abel Xavier despite the protests of the Portuguese camp. Revenge at the start of the 2006 World Cup semi-final match between France and Portugal. The Selecao, unbeaten in 19 matches and knocked out by the Netherlands in the round of 16 and by England in the quarter-finals, is hungry for revenge.
Alas, Luis Felipe Scolari’s men may have dominated the debates, especially in the second half, and it was the Blues who won 1-0. Like six previous years, the fate of the match was decided by a penalty kick, which Zinedine Zidane converted after the half-hour mark for a slight foul by Ricardo Carvalho on Thierry Henry. Therefore, bitterness is evident in the ranks of the Portuguese at the end of the meeting. “We completely dominated the second half and Portugal can be proud of their team,” he said. Luis Figo reveals his retirement from international football.
A tense atmosphere between the two seats
“We played on equal terms with the French. Logically, we should have gone to penalties.”Considered for his part by Luis Felipe Scalori. And the Brazilian technician suffers the worst, as the confrontation took place in a tense atmosphere, to say the least, especially between the two benches, as insults and inappropriate gestures came between the substitutes and members of the crew. Even Seleção’s coach denounced the insults directed at Portugal.
Resentment is strong in the Portuguese camp. France is not superior to us. We played well but the French are just waiting, combined in defence,” Thus he condemns Decaux while the Portuguese press points the finger at French sufficiency, holding that Seleção was superior to the Blues.
