France vs. Portugal: Winners and Losers from International Friendly
France defeated Portugal 2-1 in their international friendly on Saturday night, a Euro 2016 warmup for the host nation.
Karim Benzema and Paul Pogba scored their goals, with Ricardo Quaresma replying from the penalty spot, in a game which saw Fernando Santos begin his efforts to regroup and repair the national team.
Here are all the biggest winners and losers from the match as Didier Deschamps' team extended their winning run over their Iberian opponents.
Winner: Deschamps' Ribery-Less Attack
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Franck Ribery might no longer be available to the French side, but as they showed in the World Cup, that isn't hindering their attack too much.
Mathieu Valbuena and Antoine Griezmann show great technique and movement off the ball, pace to damage teams on transition plays and an ability to make telling contributions in the final third, even if the latter needs to work on his decision making at times.
With Karim Benzema in scoring form and Andre-Pierre Gignac finding form domestically, the French attack is looking in rude health.
Loser: Cristiano Ronaldo, for Once
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Cristiano Ronaldo has been in incredible form for Real Madrid so far this season, but it didn't quite happen for him on the night against France.
Starved of possession and service early on as the lone striker for Portugal, Ronaldo's frustration showed in a handful of premature runs, which saw him flagged offside, and a few wayward shots.
He couldn't get anything like a clear shot of goal until well into the second half and was then substituted—and to add insult to injury, Portugal won a penalty through his replacement just seconds after Ronaldo left the pitch.
Winner: Raphael Varane
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Laurent Koscielny and Mamadou Sakho were both absent for France, but their centre of defence still had their best option present: Raphael Varane. He was one of the main reasons that Ronaldo enjoyed such a fruitless evening.
The young Real Madrid defender has been almost faultless this season when called upon at club level and has surely established himself as the No. 1 defender for his country by now too, putting in another hugely impressive display against Portugal.
Composed, strong and with a great ability to read play developing, he was one of the most impressive performers on the pitch over the 90 minutes.
Loser: Eliseu
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At the other end of the pitch, Portuguese left-back Eliseu didn't have anywhere near as impressive a night.
He was caught in possession more than once in the first half, gifting chances to counter-attack to France—Benzema absolutely should have scored from one—and being unable to stop Griezmann and Valbuena from drifting in off the flank and causing havoc.
Eliseu was also poor going forward for too much of the game, hitting crosses out of play and leaving it late to make his overlapping runs, until he finally managed to turn up in the final quarter of an hour or so. Better is required if he wants to become the first-choice left-back for his nation.
Winner: Steve Mandanda
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With Hugo Lloris the established No. 1 goalkeeper for France, Steve Mandanda has to grab every opportunity possible to show he can rival the Spurs stopper—and he certainly did that against Portugal.
The Marseille keeper made two excellent saves, one from a Cristiano Ronaldo header which would have been an equaliser, and was largely dominant in the air and his penalty area throughout the game.
He couldn't do much about conceding a penalty and, though it ruined his hopes of a clean sheet, Mandanda showed his great quality throughout and will give Deschamps further belief that his squad has enough depth to make a serious challenge for the European Championships on home soil in 20 months.
