Lupon arrival of the quarterfinals of the Euro 2024 has left great confrontations in the box, one of them is the Portugal vs France. A matchup that will involve a clash between two stars of different generations. On the one hand, it will be Cristianolegend of the Portuguese team and, on the other, Mbappéone of the best footballers today and the Gauls’ main offensive weapon.
However, both teams are full of outstanding players, this is the case of Nuno MendesPortugal’s left back, who will occasionally have to ‘dance with the ugliest’, if his former teammate at PSG decides to occupy the right wing at certain moments of the match.
The defender of the French champion team has played the last three seasons alongside the French winger, but now will have to suffer as a rival, their first duel will be in the next Euro quarterfinal match. The Portuguese, who knows Mbappé perfectly after these years, pointed out that “he is prepared” if at some point he has to defend it. “I don’t think he’s going to play on my side. We both play on the left. But If that happens, I’m prepared. I have trained every day for these moments. We are all prepared. France has great players and so do we,” the footballer declared at a press conference.
We are all prepared. France has great players and so do we.
Unity, the key to the team
So far, the figure of the Portuguese team, Cristiano Ronaldo, has not been able to help his team in terms of numbers, since The Portuguese star has not managed to score so far in the Euro Cup. During the round of 16 match, the striker missed a penalty in extra time to put Portugal ahead on the scoreboard, something that Nuno Mendes regretted. “Normally it is Ronaldo who supports us all and this time it was the other way around. We all went to support him. It was a difficult moment for him and for everyone. “We are all here to help, he was in a bad moment and we went to help him,” he noted.
In addition, he wanted to highlight the unity that exists in the squad and the confidence that the group has for the next rounds. “We are a very united group. That’s what gave us more strength to win the game.. Diogo Costa made three incredible saves. It was an incredible moment, one that we will not forget. We didn’t want to go to penalties, but we got the victory and that gives us strength. We are all motivated for the game. “We want to give joy to people and we are going to do everything possible to achieve this,” she said.
The role of Roberto Martínez
He also had the opportunity to talk about Roberto Martinezcoach at the head of the Portuguese team, which achieved qualification for this championship in a brilliant way, being the team that he scored the most goals in favor (36) and the only one who made it full of victories, with which he accumulated a total of 30 points. In this way, the PSG full-back stressed the importance of having a coach of the Spaniard’s stature.
“We are like a family here and he does everything possible to make sure the players are well both on and off the field. That is what characterizes him most; know the mood of the players. He works well in that sense and we are all well prepared both physically and mentally to face the games and training sessions,” he highlighted.
