Portugal vs France Prediction (05.07.2024)

The second Euro 2024 quarter final takes place on Friday night, and it sees Portugal take on France. Two high quality teams, going head to head, and they will know who their semi final opponents will be by the time they play, either Spain or Germany. It's an incredibly tough side of the group, and all four will think they can win the tournament.

If Portugal want to be the team lifting this trophy though, then they are going to have to perform a lot better than what we've seen so far. Yes, they've shown glimpses of quality, but overall, it hasn't been good enough yet, they've not taken their chances well, and they have plenty to work on over the next week or so, if they want to win.

This was all evident in their last 16 game against Slovenia, where they needed penalties to go through. In the end, they won comfortably 3-0 on penalties, but before that, they wasted chances and gave away some to the opposition, and to be honest, Portugal probably should have been punished a little more than they were on that occasion. They've got a huge amount of quality, but we need to see more of it on the field.

You can also argue that France haven't been at their best just yet, but what they are doing, is finding a way to win. It wasn't going great in their last 16 game against Belgium, they were being held, but found a way to win close to the end of the game, it was very much job done and move onto the next one for them, in quite business like fashion.

Of course, there's lots of talk around Kylian Mbappe, who is playing, but perhaps not at his best, following a broken nose. The good news for France is that assuming he doesn't hurt it again, he should only get better with time, so will be looking to show more here. France have defended well so far, and they can score better than we've seen, there's a lot to like, even if it's not been vintage France so far.

Two sides who would serve up a classic at full speed if at their best, but I'm not sure either are there just yet. But from what we've seen, I think Portugal are lacking more so than France, and there's hope France can keep improving throughout the tournament. I think it will be a tight one, but with that in mind, I am backing France for the win here.