Usually, as high stake tournaments progress and the quality of opposition increases - the action decreases. That was certainly the case last night when France took on Portugal. Both sides has a distinct lack of quality in the final third and... Let's just say there was a glaring reason as to why that was the case for Portugal...
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00:00Hi everyone, hi everyone, hi everyone, blah, blah, blah, right, blah, blah, blah, well
00:11on that, Adam have we ever covered a nil-nil before?
00:13We've never covered a nil-nil before because how the f*** do you cover a nil-nil?
00:17Well there we go.
00:19Hello everyone, Adam Monk here from 442 and I'm about to try and dissect the worst game
00:23of football I have ever watched.
00:24Listen, knockout games in high-state competitions are always going to be cagey, especially as
00:29you get later into the tournament and the quality of opposition just gets higher and
00:33higher and higher.
00:34Teams are going to be a bit more conservative and not want to lose the game.
00:37That's very understandable but there was a distinct lack of attacking quality in this
00:42game and also positional quality as well.
00:44So let me just start by showing you what the formations should have looked like and it
00:48is something like this.
00:50So here you have Portugal in a sort of 4-3-3 shape with Bruno Fernandes playing off the
00:55sort of 8 position and he can drift into number 10 if need be and then France on the
00:59other hand was sort of in a more narrow diamond shape with Mbappe and Kolo Mwani up front.
01:04Now let me know, that is how it should have looked.
01:07Right, with that said, now let's hop over to the average positions.
01:11This is Portugal's and to be honest I don't really know what to call that.
01:14It's kind of a back three, Nuno Mendes playing almost as a left midfielder, Cristiano Ronaldo,
01:19well we'll get onto him later but he's almost operating as a midfielder, Stroot, Wenger and
01:24João Cancelo as well pushed very high and wide on the right hand side as well so you
01:28kind of had a kind of back three.
01:31It was a bit of a mess and to exemplify that let's flip over to France.
01:36Again very disjointed, very cagey and just look how deep William Saliba is on average
01:40compared to the other defensive players in his team.
01:43It is just absolutely all over the place.
01:46Now that shape is all well and good if you have a game plan and you're able to execute
01:49it and both teams kind of did have a game plan that was to hit each other on the break
01:52of course but neither team had the quality to get the job done.
01:57And if there's one stat to exemplify that that still rings true after full time in this
02:01game it's the fact that France haven't scored an open play goal all tournament.
02:07So like I just said both teams game plan was to sucker punch each other and hit each other
02:10on the break whether that's from a set piece or in open play.
02:13Now Portugal were able to do this slightly more efficiently which I'll come onto in a
02:17minute but when France were able to do it they just simply didn't have the quality or
02:20decision making in the final third to execute what they wanted to do so I'll show you with
02:25a clip now.
02:26So here Portugal have a corner and in a rather counterintuitive way this is exactly what
02:30France wanted them to have in the first half.
02:33Portugal swing it in and Saliba clears France's lines and the way that France actually break
02:36within their own half is really really impressive here.
02:39So it's initially headed out to Griezmann here and three Portugal players are pressing
02:42him immediately but he beats the press superbly and then likewise another three Portuguese
02:46players pressing but it's immediately transitioned out wide to Theo Hernandez and then France
02:51are on the break and it's a very very impressive drive by Theo Hernandez.
02:55France have a lot of this the physical capability to carry the ball up the pitch but when it's
02:59come to the decision making this tournament exemplified by the fact that they just haven't
03:03scored a goal in open play I mean look at this decision making woeful like I honestly
03:08could not even tell you who that pass is supposed to be to.
03:11Now in Portugal's case when they broke there was actually even though they were still pretty
03:14crappity there was still a little bit of a method to the madness and if you go and
03:19look at Ronaldo's heat map you can see here that Homelando is hugging the width of the
03:23pitch very very much so and he's not really playing as that sort of focal point striker
03:28that you'd expect him to be and what Portugal would do is this if any of these midfielders
03:32in the middle of the park or the defence picked up the ball for Portugal Cristiano Ronaldo
03:36would go out wide he'd usually occupy a defender with him and then Bernardo Silva would drift
03:41into this inside pocket and receive the ball and knock it down to either Ronaldo or Liao
03:45and then Portugal would have a foothold in France's final third and that is what they
03:49kind of rinsed and repeated.
03:50And here is a prime example of it Pepe's on the ball here who we'll come on to later he
03:55had an amazing game considering his age and Portugal are simply playing keep ball at this
03:59juncture and they're trying to invite pressure from France but he's not really coming France
04:02is sitting off and allowing them to have the ball.
04:05So he's popped out to Cancelo and look at this you can see you can see his eyes he's
04:08eyeballing the movement that he's expecting he sees Bernardo drift inside and Ronaldo
04:12outside it creates that switch and look at the pass he executes boom and then you have
04:16an unmarked Bernardo right in that pocket in the number 10 position ready to head it
04:20out wide to a vacant Cristiano Ronaldo and then Portugal can get the ball up the pitch
04:25that way and that works consistently throughout the game for them.
04:29And then on to the second half for large parts it was just more of the same disjointed shape
04:33no real cutting edge and I think the only real reason that Portugal will feel short
04:37changed in this game is they had slightly more technical players and were able just
04:41on talent alone to be slightly more incisive when they did get the ball in certain areas
04:46of the pitch.
04:47You can see here this is early in the second half like I honestly for the life of me I
04:52could not really tell you what this shape is all I could tell you is this seven bodies
04:56leaning towards the left side of the pitch but if you pop that many bodies onto one side
05:00of the pitch you best do something with it and boy do they but one thing I would say
05:04here like the amount of time that Bettini is allowed to have on the ball without any
05:08French midfielders wanting to press him like this guy's in the middle of the parquet you're
05:11trying to make this a fight you're trying to make it dogged and France were just so
05:14passive at times you can just see how like this this kind of half-arsed press from Kola
05:19Moane is just so easily beaten with a quick triangle between Bruno Pepe and Nuno Mendes
05:24but then it's popped back into Bruno and then just look at Kola Moane he just simply does
05:27not track his runner and then from those very very simplistic triangle sequences you then
05:32have a two-on-one Rafa Liao and Nuno Mendes on Jules Koundé and that of course spells
05:36danger and it is a great ball from Bruno and just sheer athleticism from Nuno Mendes that
05:40allows him to get him behind Jules Koundé and then he wants to win a penalty and he
05:44can't but Portugal got him behind on that occasion from intricate play and it was few
05:48and far between during this match and then again just to typify how dross this game was
05:52in the full 90 minutes how did France get their best chance of the game well again it
05:56was from overall poor play with one very very very fleeting moment of quality between
06:02Koundé and Kola Moane but just look at this breakaway from France the ball's won by of
06:06course N'Golo Kante and he's able to pop it into Griezmann and he's got acres of the pitch
06:10to pick out Kola Moane and just look at the execution of the pass shocking like absolutely
06:15shocking you should be able to hit that if you're Antoine Griezmann you should be able
06:19to hit that on a six pence and France should have been away and Beppe should have been
06:22in that should have been the goal moment having said that though the individual quality of
06:26Kola Moane which is something that France have heavily just relied on this tournament
06:29with him and Mbappe is able to drive him up the pitch and he plays a very very neat one
06:34too with Jules Koundé and it is to be honest an amazing block from Ruben Diaz that prevents
06:38France from opening the scoring but overall honestly in an attacking sense I'd say it
06:42was the worst game of the tournament and one of the lowest quality games of the tournament
06:46as well in terms of action inside the 18 yard box thank you Sean I would love one I would
06:54absolutely need one. We're sponsored, the channel is sponsored. I didn't ask for three
06:58but. Well I think I've just had a refresh of it. Did you pop your three in? I've just
07:03did yeah but one of the reasons is that I can't talk like that. Now one of the reasons
07:10that that game was so dismal in the 18 yard box was of course this man now very slowly
07:16I'm just going to read out the substitutions which Roberto Martinez decided to make in
07:20this game. Nelson Samedo came on for Joao Cancelo, Francisco Conceição came on for
07:25Bruno Fernandes, Ruben Neves came on for Joao Pelinha, Joao Felix came on for Rafael Leal
07:31and finally Mateus Nunes came on for Petinha. So Roberto Martinez I am asking you this question
07:37why have you made these five subs when there is a man on your pitch who has just withdrawn
07:42his state pension? It is absolutely ridiculous. He just couldn't help himself could he? Oh
07:47and it hit the wall. And then if I couldn't hammer the point home any further I mean tactics
07:52aside just look at this. It's amazing amazing individual wing play from Bernardo Silva in
07:56extra time at this point as well and in fairness to Ronaldo it is absolutely fantastic strikers
08:01movement. He drops off the shoulder of Rupert Micano, he drops deep and I'd say for a player
08:05of Cristiano Ronaldo's supposed quality he should be scoring this. Then finally onto
08:11the penalty shootout which of course decided the game now me and Adam were watching it
08:14and we heard Rio Ferdinand say that penalties are a lottery and well we disagree and we
08:20really disagree because I actually rather sadly timed the run up length of each player
08:26because Adam had a theory. And that theory is one that proved to actually be true as
08:31well and it simply put if you wait longer when the whistle has been blown and you take
08:34more time, you breathe, you set yourself up, you pick your spot, you just relax you're
08:40more likely to score and this actually paid dividends and turned out to be right. The
08:44one penalty in the shootout that was missed was by João Felix and it was also the second
08:50quickest penalty to be taken from the whistle going to the ball being kicked in the whole
08:54shootout. And also to be honest from when the whistle was blown to when he actually
08:57started stepping up to take it there was basically milliseconds he did it straight on the whistle
09:02so he spent absolutely no time setting himself up and consequently he missed. Then on the
09:08flip side what was the longest penalty from whistle to ball being kicked in the shootout
09:12you ask? Well it was Theo Hernandez's winning one. I counted 7.17 seconds from when the
09:18whistle went to when the ball was kicked and you can see here he's calm, he's composed,
09:22he takes his time, it's a slow-ish run up but you just know that he's calculated and
09:26thought about it before the ball has been kicked and then he sends the keeper the wrong
09:30way. And I think this is something that's very, very underestimated. Everyone talks
09:34about how penalties are psychological warfare and they really, really are. So you've got
09:39to take advantage of that psychology, you've got to get on top of yourself in a way rather
09:43than just instinctively going up. I kind of get that in a way like if you pick your spot
09:46okay I'm going to hit it, bang and just do it but that's all a little bit erratic and
09:51I think if you're one of those players you can sort of get in your own head, not in that
09:54way, you know just compose yourself, calm down, take your time. You are more likely
09:58to score and I think Adam, your theory was proved correct. He's editing, he can't hear me.
10:05He's tired! There you go. Anyway yes, that was a very, very dismal game. Portugal are
10:11out, Homelander is going home now and it is currently quarter past 12 so I'm going to
10:18go to bed. Don't forget to subscribe guys, I hope you've enjoyed the video. We're going
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10:47Pep, I support City, but buy it. Anyway guys yes, hope you've enjoyed the video, I've been
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11:10and the rest of your weekend, I will see you very, very soon. Goodbye!