France is confident they can get to the finals with Zizou playing his usual game and his usual game happens to be an enormous defensive problem for opposing teams.
Zidane’s last game against Brazil proved his age together with Patrick Vieira is an unstoppable combination that brings experiences, composure and leadership to the team. Zidane’s brilliance in the midfield will create a lot of scoring opportunities for them which they hope could be utilized heavily by one of the deadliest strikers in the world — Thierry Henry.
Portugal on the other hand relies heavily on Manchester United Christian Ronaldo to create and mount offensive attacks for the team. With Deco back after serving suspension we can expect scoring threats from a team led by master tactician Felipe Scolari — the coach who led Brazil in 2002 FIFA World Cup.
Felipe’s tactics have led to various indecent comments about Portugal who uses every dirty trick in the book to win matches, from flopping, little dirty fouls, diving, etc. What not, this underdog team managed to reach the semi-finals for the first time in 40 years.
I expect Zizou to display mastery of the game once again and sent Portugal home.
Below is the projected game lineup for each teams:
France: 1. RICARDO, 5. FERNANDO MEIRA, 6. COSTINHA, 7. LUIS FIGO (C), 9. PAULETA, 13. MIGUEL, 14. NUNO VALENTE, 16. RICARDO CARVALHO, 17. CRISTIANO RONALDO, 18. MANICHE, 20. DECO
Portugal: 16. BARTHEZ Fabien, 3. ABIDAL Eric, 4. VIEIRA Patrick, 5. GALLAS William, 6. MAKELELE Claude, 7. MALOUDA Florent, (C)10. ZIDANE Zinedine, (C)10. ZIDANE Zinedine, 15. THURAM Lilian, 19. SAGNOL Willy, 22. RIBERY Frank
Forecast: France 2 – Portugal 1
[tags]FIFA World Cup, World Cup, FIFA World Cup 2006, Germany, France, Portugal, Semi-finals[/tags]
