France too strong for Portugal

France caused something of an upset as they beat Portugal 2-0 at the Lyngby stadium in their UEFA European Under-17 Championship Group B match today.

Hard work and finesse
Portugal, four-time winners of the U-16 tournament (the U-17's predecessor), were tipped by many to push Spain all the way for the title but came unstuck against a well-organised and resilient French side. While Portugal's squad is packed full of technically gifted players, their opponents battled well and found an ideal balance between hard work and finesse.

Early chances
Portugal started brightly and Sporting Clube de Portugal's Christiano Ronaldo was only denied by a sprawling save by French keeper Benoït Benvegnu after five minutes. Three minutes later, France struck the woodwork as Saïd Khiter beat his marker but slammed a shot against the crossbar. Christiano Ronaldo continued to impress, but gradually France's midfield pairing of Yohann Folly and Guillaume Plessis began to assert their authority on proceedings.

Khiter on target
France took the lead four minutes before half-time, when Christophe Mandanne slipped the ball through to Khiter and he rounded Christopher before easing the ball into an empty net. Having dominated much of the half, Portugal could count themselves unlucky to be behind at the break but they had failed to find the killer pass to open up the French defence and were duly punished.

Mandanne strike
The second half saw France take control of the contest and their domination finally told after 53 minutes, when Khiter played a neat pass to Mandanne and he beat two defenders before blasting past the keeper at his near post.

Benvegnu impresses
Portugal, needing a goal to get themselves back into the match, had several good chances but found Benvegnu in fine form. The French keeper raced from his line to deny Ricardo midway through the half, before the Toulouse FC player smothered Christiano Ronaldo's diving header. Portugal's misery was compounded in stoppage time, when Christiano Ronaldo was sent off after collecting his second yellow card for a trip on substitute Jimmy Briand.

'Great start'
France coach Luc Rabat was in buoyant mood after the match and praised his players for their performance against a much-fancied Portuguese side. "I am very happy with the result. To beat a side like Portugal in our first match is a great start," he said. "They are a very good team, with some skilful players, but eventually the enthusiasm and offensive nature of my side told. It was a very physical but technical match but I am sure Portugal will recover and continue in the tournament."

'Today we failed'
Barceló Silveira Ramos, Portugal's coach, was disappointed not only by the result but by the performance of his players. "Whenever we lose a match we are disappointed," he said. "Today we failed to do many of the things we know we can do - especially our passing. France were very good in defence and did not allow us to attack like we can. We felt we were unlucky to go in behind at the interval, but we did not take our chances. They had a strong midfield, we knew that would happen, but we allowed them to hit us on the counterattack."