France defeated Portugal 1-0 to reach the Finals of Germany 2006. Even though both teams employed the lone striker, both teams still pushed forward looking to score.

Portugal started the stronger and created a few chances in the early minutes of the game. Once France settled down, they were able to nullify Portugal’s midfield, especially the creative influence of Deco, who rarely got a touch on the ball.

Thierry Henry proved instrumental in the 33rd min. when he went down in the penalty area after the lightest of touches from Portugal defender, Ricardo Carvalho. Zidane then converted the spot kick against Ricardo, who guessed right, but could not keep the ball out. France continued to hold out defensively, and now find themselves one match away from World Cup glory.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 6th, 2006 at 3:06 am and is filed under Soccer World, World Cup 2006, Rick Wall (Head Editor). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.