David Gold knows exactly why France were beaten by outsiders Portugal in the Euro 2016 Final last night.
With Cristiano Ronaldo injured and off the pitch, the French capitulated to a goal in extra time after manager Didier Deschamps had incomprehensibly taken off Dimi Payet.
The West Ham midfield genius had been a menace throughout before the second half decision and although they had never been at their best, the Portuguese came more and more into the game as a result of his absence.
And as the French manager made what looked like a fateful decision DG immediately tweeted: “The substitution of Dimitri Payet has given Portugal a chance. dg.”
That was exactly how it turned out as Hammers fans world wide looked on gobsmaccked but delighted that out top man’s tournament had ended injury free.
ClaretandHugh sends a huge congratulations to Dimi on his magnificent performances and none of us can wait to see him back in the claret and blue.
Absolute madness from Deschamps, I think Payet was having a more quiet game in the first half, however so was the whole French team and Payet was still creating great chances. Taking Payet off for Coman was madness, I don’t care how many runs Coman made..He doesn’t have the footballing experience for big games like this was, we saw it in the first match..France buckled..It needed a calm, experienced player like Payet to break it. Just like DG, I knew that when Payet was taken off, France were saying goodbye to the final…Watching it in the final moment of the game, you knew that it needed that moment of brilliance that so far only Payet has shown he can really provide. Not to worry, taking Payet off has calmed the transfer rumours and perhaps Deschamps would like to have a look at the UEFA Player Barometer and ask himself what on earth was he thinking…
Coman looked much more threatening. Payet has no experience in these big matches either? Coman at 20 already has three different league titles. I dont think payet was worthy of being singled out for the 3 rating but lets not delude ourselves into thinking his absense cost france…
I don’t agree Coman looked more threatening, he was better than the rest of the France team except Sissoko but what did he do ? He put in one good ball, the idiots at the bbc were raving about it but Payet put an identical shaped but more difficult ball onto Griezman in the first half, he also created clear chances from free kicks and corners, I am not saying Coman was bad he wasn’t but Dimi and Sissoko were the only ones trying to speed the game up, If you look at Pogba and Matuidi they were just bombing forward brainlessly in straight lines with zero end product, mostly Sissoko was also bombing straight forward down the wing but he was providing width and had good end product, that game needed someone in the middle that could unlock Portugal Griezman has been excellent but yesterday he didn’t have his best game and he needed someone to link up with or thread the passes through to him, it was Giroud who needed to come off and Martial should have been put on to do what Sissoko was doing and stretch the Portuguese out wide, then Dimi could have played through the middle and made Matuidi and Pogba move laterally rather than in the almost straight lines and create those triangles that pull opposing players out of positions. Portugal defended well but Deshampa selection and substitutions made it very easy for them.
I see L’Equipe gave him 3/10 – making him the “worst” player on the pitch. Ok, he didn’t have his best game, but that’s just nonsense.
In many ways, him finishing with a lesser performance keeps the circling clubs at bay.
And, of course, he’s finished the tournament injury free.
Good news all round, I think.
Dechump ? Got exactly what his footballing bias griefsman / pogba deserved , I posted before about this bloke , he is clueless !
On a brighter note , what a great tackle on the serial cheater ronaldo ! All those years of diving , complaining , self loving bandit , ( remember the Rooney wink ) came back to haunt him , they must have heard me laughing in Paris ,lol.
Even mummy has got in on the act ,
If ever anybody ex created delusions of grandeur this mob take the biscuit ,
Great player yes ! Same cannot be said as a person .
The euphoria surrounding the take tackle is obscene , dimi is having to explain in the media that he didn’t mean to injure the cringeing mug !
Hold you’re head up dimi , you outshone him and everyone else at the tournament , official !!
Well said Johnboy, to me it looked a completely fair tackle, he went in strongly and won the ball, he stayed on his feet his studs were down, it was a block tackle that resulted in both their knees clashing unfortunate for Ronaldo he got injured but no blame for anyone involved, no booking and no free kick was the right decision.
In a sense yes the mistake was subbing of payet giroud should have taken the chop early on but i think the mistake lies with not swapping giroud for martial when payet was taken off but we all know the reason was influenced by payet injuring ronaldo but to be honest i cheered when he did now payet is my top hammers legend lol
Let’s talk facts, Payet can have his most quiet game and yet still create goals. Last game at Upton Park v Man Utd he was dreadful and would normally have been taken off, Bilic knowing his players kept him on and Payet set two goals up from his crossing ability for the win.