Draws France 2-2, Portugal Advances To The Round Of 16 Of Euro 2022

Portugal Team (Photo: Instagram @cristiano)

JAKARTA - The Portugal national team qualified for the round of 16 of Euro 2020 as one of the best third places after a 2-2 draw against France in the final match of Group F at the Puskas Arena Stadium, Budapest, Hungary, Wednesday, June 23 local time.

As reported by Antara, Thursday, June 24, Cristiano Ronaldo's penalty that gave Portugal the lead was answered by Karim Benzema for France as well as from the penalty spot conversion.

Benzema then gave France the lead only to be equalized by Ronaldo, once again with a penalty.

These results, coupled with a 2-2 draw that also occurred in Germany vs Hungary match, made France still qualify for the round of 16 as winners of Group F with five points.

Meanwhile, Portugal only qualified as one of the best third places just below Germany due to a head-to-head defeat, even though both teams both collected four points, according to the official UEFA website.

The first half was relatively evenly matched, but Portugal was relatively better off building attacks thanks to Fernando Santos' bold move to leave Bruno Fernandes on the bench and William Carvalho to be replaced by Joao Moutinho and Renato Sanches.

The score of the first half also showed that balance, namely 1-1, but both goals were born from the conversion of too cheap penalty kicks awarded by referee Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz to both teams.

The first penalty was awarded to Portugal after France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris accidentally ended up elbowing Danilo Pereira in the face after a successful punch.

Mateu Lahoz appeared to be in contact with VAR but was determined to award a penalty for Portugal and a yellow card for Lloris without needing to watch the replay on the touchline monitor.

The penalty kick was met by Ronaldo who coolly tricked Lloris to give Portugal the lead in the 30th minute.

Portugal looked comfortable keeping their lead until the end, once again Mateu Lahoz pointed to the spot right at the end of normal time for the first half, this time awarding a penalty for France.

Kylian Mbappe fell inside the box from a light collision from Nelson Semedo's marker, but Mateu Lahoz believes it was enough for him to point to the spot.

Ronaldo's former Real Madrid partner Benzema faced the ball and coolly beat Rui Patricio to keep both teams 1-1 at halftime.

After halftime, France immediately kicked in and Benzema was immediately able to break into Portugal's goal again in the 47th minute.

Benzema initially had to stop his celebrations because the linesman raised the offside flag on the touchline, but later he and his teammates really celebrated turning things around 2-1 after VAR confirmed the goal.

In the 58th minute, Mateu Lahoz again pointed to the spot to award a penalty kick for Portugal, but this time the cause was fewer pro-cons because Ronaldo's flick was seen approaching the arm of defender Jules Koundé who was not in normal posture.

Ronaldo was again the executioner and calmly slotted the ball into the net to make it 2-2 again in the 60th minute.

Eight minutes later France would have had to restore their lead had Patricio not parried Pogba's shot and saved Griezmann's strike on the ball.

After that, the game gradually slowed down and the score of 2-2 lasted until dispersal.

As the winners of Group F, France will face Switzerland in the last 16 matches in Bucharest on Monday, June 28 next week.

While Portugal will meet Belgium in Seville, the day before.