In Euro 2016 final, Santos back where Portugal mission began

Wales’s fairytale Euro 2016 journey has ended after a 2-0 defeat to Portugal in the semi-finals.

Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo scores their first goal during Euro 2016 Semi-final against Wales at Stade de Lyon, in Lyon, France on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

“They could only give what they had and we looked a bit exhausted tonight”, he told reporters.

“We’ve done extremely well, we’d have liked to have gone another step further and got to the final but we can be proud of what we’ve achieved and we can build on that now for the future”.

But they returned en masse for clashes in Paris, Lille and Lyon to cheer Gareth Bale and his team-mates on, with 20,000 said to have made the trip to central-eastern France for the semi-final.

Portugal, losing their only previous final to Greece in 2004, will fight for the title against the victor of the other match between hosts France and world champions Germany, which will be held in Marseille on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Competing in its first tournament since the 1958 World Cup, Wales – a rugby-mad nation of 3 million people – has been one of the most popular stories of Euro 2016, topping its group and then beating highly fancied Belgium in the quarterfinals.

“We wanted to test ourselves against the best countries in the world, we have done ourselves and our country proud and we can hold our heads high and give it a go again”. I fully believed in the team we had out.

Portugal had not previously won a game inside 90 minutes at the tournament and had been criticised for taking part in boring matches.

“The age of the group will mean we are together for the next few years at least”. We’re normally better when teams attack us and we can find a bit of space. We’ve tried to enjoy the experience of the tournament.

“I’ve given it my all so, like the gaffer says, there has been great teamwork, the players have been fighting hard”.

“He’s one of those players who frustrates you”, Ledley said.

“But we just had one of those days where things he did came off. I want to help the national team as much as I can, not only with goals but also by running and coming back to defend”, he said.

But the Welsh had no response to the successive blows dealt by Ronaldo after a turgid first half that had been illuminated by a couple of surging runs from Bale.