Battle of Heavyweights: Ronaldo vs Mbappe in the Euro 2024

The meeting of two strong teams, Portugal versus France, should promise an exciting match, lots of goals and course other dramas on the field. Unfortunately, the duel between the two at Euro 2024 will be disappointing since either one of them will progress to the next round and other will fly home. The rematch of Euro 2106 final will be played at the Volksparkstadion on Saturday in the Quarter final of Euro 2024.

Portugal and France's progress to the quarter-finals was predicted, but the facts on the ground were challenging, both sides might be considered lucky to have made it to the quarter-finals. Former Euro champions led by Ronaldo's progress at Euro 2024 so far could have been smoother. Indeed, they won Group F, but that doesn't mean everything was easy. Portugal won matchday 1 and matchday 2, beating the Czech Republic 2-1 and beating Türkiye 3-0. However, Cristiano Ronaldo led Portugal stumbled on matchday 3, losing 0-2 to Georgia.

Continuing to the round of 16, Tuesday 2 July 2024, Portugal was lucky to win on penalties over Slovenia by 3-0. The 5-time Balon d’Or has not performed optimally and has not scored a goal so far, they were also still inconsistent. In essence, the Navigators’ progress to the quarter-finals cannot be called smooth, they had to work hard to win over a team like Slovenia, even losing to Georgia.

On the other hand, The Leus is also not very convincing, France even failed to win the group, being overtaken by Austria who played at an extraordinary level. The former World Champion run so far has been smooth, but not exactly impressive. In fact, after playing three group stage matches and one round of 16 matches, France only scored a total of 3 goals. They narrowly won 1-0 over Austria and 1-0 over Belgium in the last 16, the other two matches ended in draws, 0-0 with the Netherlands and 1-1 with Poland.

Seeing the progress of Portugal and France so far, it is natural to feel pessimistic ahead of the duel between the two teams in the quarter-finals. France played dubiously, not showing their status as favourites to win. On the other hand, Portugal is still uncertain, sometimes they can play badly and find it difficult to score goals.

More than that, this weekend's match will compete for tickets to the semifinals, both teams will play extra carefully. It will be great to see whether Ronaldo or Mbappe who will secure the semis' spot?