Griezmann double sends France into Euro 2016 final

“There is a lot of passion and fervour”.

It was, of course, during a friendly between France and Germany at the Stade de France, which will stage Sunday’s Euro 2016 final, that the first explosions were heard on the night of the Paris attacks in November in which 130 people died and hundreds of others were wounded.

What time does the Portugal – France game start?

The stats may have read in Germany’s favour, most notably a dominating 65% in possession, but two defensive errors cost the world champions dearly, coupled with their own ineffective radar in front of goal.

“We are in a final”.

“It was a key moment to score the first goal, the penalty changed the game because Germany had created some chances in the first half but weren’t able to score”. We haven’t done it in a long time. Portugal believe in themselves. “We again have a hero, a striker who can make us win tournaments”. “Hopefully. What a player”. We do, too. It’s still very open.

Giroud added via BeIN Sport: “It’s been a while since we beat that team in a big match”.

“I hope I can get closer to him. It’s our duty to win matches for the French public”.

Having converted a controversial first-half penalty for Bastian Schweinsteiger’s handball, Griezmann put the result beyond doubt with a sweetly struck second half shot. We’re going to enjoy this and then concentrate on the final on Sunday. “The penalty, I don’t know, there is this rule, if the hand is not on the body… if you see how Bastian approached the ball, the ball touched his hand in a tenth of a second”, Low told a post-match news conference.

“I don’t say anything about referees’ decisions”, he said.

The coach, who won the European Championship as a player in 2000, bemoaned the calendar that gives his players one day less to recover than Portugal.

“This was a good tournament for us”.

After the final whistle, France’s jubilant players celebrated with the fans by performing the “Huh” chant made famous at the tournament by Iceland.

Deschamps, who met reporters much later than expected, said he was delayed as he soaked up some of the atmosphere after France defeated Germany in a major competition for the first time since the 1958 World Cup.

Griezmann isn’t the only one getting better the deeper France goes.

“He is our little man that gives us that little bit extra”, fellow striker Olivier Giroud said of the frail 25-year-old with the magic touch.

“I’d like to write a chapter in history and achieve something great on Sunday”.

“We feel this event is a great way of everyone celebrating what has been a historic period for Welsh football”, said FAW chief executive Jonathan Ford.

“At the back they were great. Another week. We played with this motivation!”

Germany manager Joachim Low was uncertain about his future when asked after the game.

“I can’t predict things from tomorrow. Tonight is magnificent, I’m happy, but it’s not over”. We haven’t discussed beforehand what we would do after a loss. “We didn’t discuss it beforehand, but maybe in two or three days we’ll talk about it and consider whether we need to discuss anything about this tournament”, he said.

He thought his side were unfortunate to lose to France, but now expected Les Bleus to win the tournament. “I was very composed, I didn’t think twice”, Griezmann said. Today that wasn’t the case.

“This is for the players, who deserve it. We played the best team in the world and we knocked them out”.

He added: “We needed to beat a top side to get more recognition, we had a few issues but we deserved to get the victory”. If you concede in the 44th minute, everyone was shocked.