France 1-0 Portugal

France emerged as victor in the semi-final match against Portugal with a 1-0 scoreline on Wednesday. The 34-year-old Zidane, who retires after the finals, got the winner after 33 minutes by calmly converting a penalty after Thierry Henry's ankle was caught by Ricardo Carvalho.

For Portugal, it was another disappointing end and this finally brought down the curtain on their golden generation. It was the first loss in 13 World Cup matches for Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who won the title with Brazil in 2002, after 11 wins and the draw against England in the quarter-finals that his team won on penalties. Meanwhile, Portugal's dismal record of not beating France since 1975 continues after this match.

Soccer Pundit feels that all is not lost for Portugal. They have a glittering star in Cristiano Ronaldo who really made the difference with his flicks, back-heels, crosses, speed and step-overs. Character-wise, he still need to develop himself but his technical ability is beyond doubt as he posed the main danger to France whenever he had the ball. Soccer Pundit mentioned previously that Portugal's front line is inept; Pauletta, Postiga, Nuno Gomez were ineffective and this severely restricts the ability to win a match.

Previously, they had long-range goals from Maniche to rescue them but against France, that did not happen. The fact that Scolari left Ronaldo as the only front-man towards the end highlighted this inadequacy. Their midfield is among the best with players like Deco, Figo, Ronaldo, Simao and Maniche. Thus, the story of Portugal is one of well-organised play and one-touch passing due to their excellent midfield but never being able to score due to the quality of the strikers. The match could have played another 90 minutes and there will still be little goal-mouth action from Portugal.

France, on the other hand, have players like Henry, Trezeguet, Saha, Ribery and Cisse (injured) in their frontline which is a luxury for Portugal. Their midfield is also extremely strong with Zidane, Makelele, and Vieira. More importantly, it is the majestic performance of "Zizou" which tipped the scale. It is extremely difficult to take the ball away from Zidane as he can hold the ball well, shimmy past the defender at ease or make an accurate pass back to his team-mates. Coupled with his vision in spotting the openings in defence, there is no doubt that he has the hallmark of a world class player and is probably the best player ever to don the French colors.

His sublime touches managed to unlock the Portuguese defence several times and France always looked more dangerous in front of goal than the Portuguese did. Soccer Pundit can't remember the French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez being put under much of a pressure throughout the whole game.

Actually, Barthez is the weakest link in the French team with his eccentric and inconsistent performance at times. This is something which Soccer Pundit believes the Italians would definitely exploit. The Italians have shown an uncanny knack of striking at the right moment in this tournament so the French defence would have to be at their best at all times. Any lapse in concentration in set-pieces or one-to-one situation with Barthez would be fatal.

The finals is a match which is very even in skills and technique and anybody can be a winner. You will need a referee who is competent to spot the technical fouls as the Italians have perfected play-acting and rough challenges to an art. Thierry Henry is also beginning to show some talent in this aspect with his antics against Spain and the penalty won against Portugal when he "tripped" over.

The team who scores the first goal may just go on to be the world champion. To breach the Italian defence, you need someone who is truly exceptional but in Zidane, France have such a player with the class and magic to do that so they may just have the slight edge so long as Barthez is well-protected...