Portugal

The Portugal team started the Euro 2020 tournament with a victory against Hungary's footballers with a score of 3:0. Although the score was still 0-0 until the 84th minute, after the first goal, the Hungarian team completely collapsed, and the Portuguese, having fun, scored 2 more goals and finished the match with a crushing result. Interestingly, the Portuguese had several good chances to score in the first half, but perhaps due to the tension of the first match or just a bad day, those chances were not utilized, even though most of the match was played in “one goal.”

We saw a completely different picture in the match between Portugal and Germany – already in the 15th minute, the first goal of the match flew into the German goal, scored by C. Ronaldo after a pass from D. Jota. However, after this goal, the German team completely took control of the match and managed to score 2 goals before the break and take the lead. Although both of Germany's first goals were recorded as own goals by Portugal in the match protocol, looking at the situations from which the Germans would have shot, those goals would have been scored anyway. The German team simply dominated in attack, and Portugal's defense had no answers.

To achieve victory against France, the Portugal team will first need to find ways to patch the defensive gaps that were glaring in the match against Germany. There are no questions about Portugal's attack – this team can score goals and create chances, but just scoring a goal in the match against France will not be enough if they play with a porous defense and concede several goals again.

France

The French team, with 4 points, has already secured a place in the next stage, but they will undoubtedly aim to win against one of their main opponents and advance to the next stage as group winners. Speaking about the French team, there is a mixed feeling – on one hand, the team plays well but fails to capitalize on opportunities, and on the other hand, the French game is completely different from what both football analysts and the team's fans expected.

In the match against Germany, after an early goal, the French completely stopped playing and closed in defense, even though the goal was scored quite early – just in the 20th minute of the match. Such a decision would be logical in the middle of the second half, but not in the first. The Germans had several good chances to equalize, and if they had utilized at least one of those chances, we would be talking about the importance of this match from a different perspective now.

In the match against Hungary, the French conceded the first goal, and it seemed that they came to the first half just to jog, not to play football. It's hard to say if there are any internal problems within the team or if the players are not fully committed to the group stage, but it is clear that predicting the French team's game at least at this stage is very difficult, and it is unclear what we can expect from this team.

Predicted team line-ups:

Portugal:
Patricio, Semedo, Dias, Pepe, Guerreiro, Pereira, Sanches, Fernandes, B.Silva, Ronaldo, Jota;

France:
Lloris, Pavard, Varane, Kimpembe, Hernandez, Kante, Pogba, Tolisso, Griezmann; Mbappe, Benzema.

Prediction

The Portugal team has shown good offense in the first stages of this tournament, averaging 2.5 goals per match. Meanwhile, the French have scored only 2 goals but conceded just 1. It is likely that the hurricane-like attack of the Portugal team will manage to break through Lloris' guarded goal, but it is doubtful if that will be enough for a victory. The French have one of the strongest attacking lines in the tournament, and Portugal's defense raises many questions, so it is likely that we will see the French scoring more than one goal.