France seeks healing final victory vs underachiever Portugal

France, which has pumped in nine goals in their last three matches, are listed at +110 to defeat Portugal on Sunday at Stade de France in Saint-Denis and become a three-time European champion.

Paul Pogba and Antoine Griezmann decorate the front page of French sports daily L’Equipe, which heralds “The Day of the Lords”.

Ronaldo’s Real teammate Pepe is fully fit again after missing the semi-final through injury. France’s Dimitri Payet, center, heads a ball during a training session at the stadium in Clairefontaine, France, Saturday, July 9, 2016. Guerreiro has started four of the Selecao’s games at Euro 2016, including their 2-0 semi-final victory over Wales.

France or Portugal will top the European Championship prize money table with at least 25 million euros ($27.6 million) from UEFA. We had the best team in the world opposite us.

Major worldwide finals are seldom high-scoring affairs, and yet past results between these two teams suggest goals could be in the offing.

Mathias Vicherat, the Paris Mayor’s chief of staff, said some 1,900 police and other security officers would patrol the fan zone, while the city’s police chief, Michel Cadot, said 3,400 officers would patrol the Champs-Elysees, some of them redeployed from the stadium and fan zone after the final kicks off.

“He’s a very important player in the French team”.

“They are, in my opinion, favorites because they are playing at home and that’s a big advantage”, Ronaldo said.

Theo Zagorakis held the European Championship trophy aloft, and the ink dried on one of the most painful chapters in Portugal’s football history.

Portugal will be out to spoil the French party by claiming a first major tournament trophy after their most recent final appearance ended in a bitter loss to Greece as hosts of Euro 2004.

“That would be awesome”, coach Fernando Santos said.

“Tomorrow I think we are going to write a new chapter in our history”.

Their record in major tournament games at the final venue – the Stade de France – is also stellar.

“Our fathers played in the same team and my big brother Jeremy, Mathieu and I were all in the youth system at Bordeaux”, said Silva, who moved to Portugal before joining Sporting at the age of 13. “I have won everything at club level and the individual level, this would be a great achievement to win something for the Portuguese team. And I will be going home very happy”.

“Clearly we went through a crisis in French football but we’ve been able to really pick ourselves up from that crisis”, Lloris, part of the squad in South Africa, said. “Now we must get the victory”. We’ll see who wins but we hope it’s Portugal.

“We don’t have the power to solve the French people’s problems but we can ease their worries”, he said.