Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo winners -Euro 2016.

Portugal, 1-0 winners after extra time against hosts France in the UEFA EURO 2016 final, are the tenth country to have captured the Henri Delaunay Cup.

Portugal are the tenth different nation to win the UEFA European Championship, joining six other countries in having lifted the Henri Delaunay Cup once.

Portugal – who had lost the 2004 final to Greece on home soil – beat hosts France 1-0 in Saint-Denis on Sunday for their first ever major tournament triumph, Éder scoring in the second period of extra time. Greece, Denmark, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, Italy and the Soviet Union also have one EURO title to their name.

Portugal celebrates the first-ever major title on a night of high drama on the outskirts of Paris. The tension reached culmination pitch early on, starting with Ronaldo’s injury, and continued through a lively, albeit fruitless, second half and beyond. Eder’s unlikely heroics finally ended the deadlock in extra time, and France lacked the energy, guile and quality to solve the puzzle that was Portugal’s determined defense.                                                                     

The Euro 2016 final came down to France and Portugal, and Portugal walked away with one epic win, even after Cristiano Ronaldo was forced to sit out of most of the game. After the game ended, fans went nuts over the winning team of Euro 2016. See their excited tweets now!

Beyond Ronaldo’s up and down form, there were positive signs for the Iberians. Pepe’s near-flawless performance Thursday night will encourage manager Fernando Santos that Portugal can repel the likes of a Belgium — assuming they get past a Welsh side that can seemingly do no wrong at the moment. And Nani and Sanches are in good enough form to salvage a result against lesser opponents.

What’s clear, however, is that this Portuguese side isn’t good enough to win a final without Ronaldo showing up like he has at certain moments throughout this tournament.His detractors will say he’s lost confidence. Those who have watched him know he’s suffered a bit of misfortune.

His international reputation won’t be scarred by Thursday night’s performance.And like always, Ronaldo’s always looking ahead to the next time he can be front and centre.

Is this how France will line up against Portugal in the UEFA EURO 2016 final?

  Didier Deschamps is set to stick with the same XI which downed Germany in the Euro 2016 semi-final when his France side take on Portugal in Saint-Denis on Sunday.

Moussa Sissoko and Samuel Umtiti were added to the line up through the knockout stages as replacements for N’Golo Kante and Adil Rami – who missed out through suspension – and have performed well enough to keep their places for the final.

Elsewhere, it’s as expected. Six-goal Antoine Griezmann has been the star of the European Championship and will play up front with Olivier Giroud and Dimitri Payet.A strong, determined performance from France was enough to beat a Germany side who enjoyed plenty of possession, but created little. The hosts will play Portugal in the final.

France began the game well, lovely interplay between Blaise Matuidi and Antoine Griezmann taking them across the pitch and into the box before the ball caught under the latter's feet, allowing Manuel Neuer to push his shot away. Subsequently, Germany took over, the clever angles of passing and movement taken by Bastian Schweinsteiger and Toni Kroos too much for France, who simply sat deep, hoping to survive and then break.

In that period, Germany could not create much, lacking ideas around the box and a serious centre-forward, though Samuel Umtiti was outstanding in the French defence and in front of him, Moussa Sissoko chased and tracked diligently.

Then, on the stroke of half-time, Patrice Evra, a growing offensive influence, rose to attack a header and Schweinsteiger rose with him, throwing up an arm that made contact with the ball. The referee pointed to the spot, and Griezmann slammed it left-footed into the net.

Germany could not muster the same dominance in the second half as France improved - Laurent Koscielny grew into the game as did Paul Pogba, and it was he who created the decisive second after 72 minutes. Catching Joshua Kimmich in possession, he refused the opportunity to go down under the consequent challenge, instead backing away, waggling his foot over the ball and diddling Shkodran Mustafi, before lifting a cross that Neuer could only palm out to Griezmann; he stabbed home with chilling competence.

And that, more or less was that. The Marseille crowd enjoyed 20 minutes of collective bliss, and France will fancy themselves hard in the final.

Antoine Griezmann fires France into final with Portugal.

   Hosts France advanced to the Euro 2016 final with their first victory over Germany in a major tournament since 1958 on a night of high emotion in Marseille.

Antoine Griezmann, the tournament's top scorer, made the decisive contributions in each half to set up a final against Portugal at the Stade de France on Sunday.

Griezmann scored from the penalty spot right on half-time when Germany's Bastian Schweinsteiger was penalised for handball by Italian referee Nicola Rizzoli in an aerial challenge with Patrice Evra.

France held out against German pressure before Griezmann settled the destination of a pulsating semi-final with 18 minutes left when he turned in from close range after keeper Manuel Neuer could only half-clear Paul Pogba's cross.

Joshua Kimmich then hit the woodwork for Germany and also saw a header brilliantly saved by France keeper Hugo Lloris - but there was no way back for the World Cup holders.

France made a slow start to Euro 2016 but there was a real sense inside Marseille's vast Stade Velodrome that Didier Deschamps' team are now being carried towards the finishing line in Paris on Sunday by a national tide of emotion.

It was, of course, during a friendly between France and Germany at the Stade de France, which will stage Sunday's Euro 2016 final, that the first explosions were heard on the night of the Paris attacks in November in which 130 people died and hundreds of others were wounded. Fourteen players who started that night were in the line-ups that took to the field here in Marseille.

The atmosphere inside the Stade Velodrome was electric after a day of searing temperatures and the togetherness now felt between France's players and their supporters was summed up in one moment in the second half.

Germany were applying pressure in an attempt to claw back a 1-0 deficit when the whole ground erupted into a rousing chorus of national anthem La Marseillaise to urge their team on.

One more task remains against Portugal on Sunday - the whole of France expects.

Gareth Bale was full of praise for Cristiano Ronaldo.

  The striker opened the scoring for his nation as they advanced into the final, and his club team-mate could not help but praise his performance after the match

Gareth Bale hailed Real Madrid colleague Cristiano Ronaldo as a "natural goalscorer" after he netted in Portugal's 2-0 Euro 2016 semi-final win overWales.

The showdown between the two Madrid heavyweights dominated the pre-match headlines and it was Ronaldo who shone brightest.

His powerful 50th-minute header saw him equal Michel Platini's record of nine European Championship goals, with Ronaldo then turning provider – albeit perhaps inadvertently – for Nani's goal three minutes later.

And Bale told ITV of his club-mate: "Obviously he's a natural goalscorer and he scored yet again.

"But as I said it's not about them, it's about us. We'll pick ourselves up. We're a proud bunch. We have to be proud of what we've achieved in this tournament.

"We want to thank all the fans obviously – the support we have had is absolutely incredible."

Wales were at least the equal of their opponents in a tight first half and Bale reflected on what he felt were fine margins that decided the outcome.

"They got their first goal and were lucky on the second," he added. "We tried our hardest to get back into the game and fought until the last second.

"We gave everything. We have no regrets."

Fernando Santos' side will meet hosts France or world champions Germany in the final.

Cristiano Ronaldo squares off against Gareth Bale in Portugal v Wales (VIDEO).

       

The world's two most expensive players, who line up alongside each other at Real Madrid, will go head to head when Bale's Wales meet Ronaldo's Portugal in their Euro 2016 semi-final in Lyon on Thursday morning (AEST).

          In playing terms, both are the leaders of their teams, but they take very different approaches to their role.

While Bale is widely acclaimed as an inspiration for his national team, Ronaldo's influence on Portugal is the subject of debate.

          "Cristiano has worked for the squad and it's only the squad which matters here," said midfielder Andre Gomes.

"Maybe people were expecting more goals, [but] he has made a huge contribution to the national team and it's not the moment to start questioning a player."

           Coach Fernando Santos added Ronaldo has sacrificed himself for the team.

Even so, the 31-year-old three-times world player of the year has often struggled with an image problem, especially when he said two years ago that Portugal needed "two or three Cristiano Ronaldos".

He insists on taking every free kick within – and often beyond – shooting distance, prompting suggestions he is selfish, and is regularly captured on television cameras remonstrating angrily with his teammates.

         Earlier in the tournament Ronaldo threw a reporter's microphone into a lake when he was asked a question during a team walk, and was criticised for disparaging remarks he made about Iceland after Portugal drew 1-1 with the rank outsiders in their opening match.

Bale, in comparison, looks relaxed and is not afraid to stir up some controversy, such as when he said no England players would get into the Wales side, adding the Welsh were more passionate than their larger neighbours.

       Television images tend to show him encouraging his teammates rather than gesticulating angrily and complaining.

"They are obviously different types of people and different characters," said Wales manager Chris Coleman. "Whatever Bale brings to the table for us, that's him. He's not manufactured. He doesn't try to be something he's not.

        "Gareth is clearly a special player. For us he is special, not just because of his talent but what he represents when he plays for Wales.

"He appreciates what he has around him and they appreciate they have a super talent. It's a good blend."

        Cristiano Ronaldo is immaculately groomed, makes a point of posing for the cameras when he scores, is often captured scowling at his colleagues and recently launched his own men's fragrance called Legacy.

       Gareth Bale is constantly encouraging his teammates and is described by his manager as "the most down-to-earth boy you could meet".

Portugal vs Wales & Ronaldo vs Bale.

Wales and Portugal are set to contest the first Euro 2016 semi-final at Stade de Lyon in France on Wednesday evening.

All eyes will be on Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo as the Real Madrid superstars go head-to-head, and with a spot in the final at stake, it has all the ingredients for a blockbuster clash.

Chris Coleman's side, who have reached the semi-final of a major tournament for the first time in their history, come up against a Portugal team yet to win in normal time this summer.

Ahead of the big match in Lyon, Sportsmail takes a glance at where it could be won or lost.

When Portugal and Wales collide in the semi-finals of the European Championship on Wednesday night, the tie will pitch two of the biggest stars in world football against one another.

But not only are they among the biggest names on the globe, both Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo have spent the past three years slugging it out to be the big dog at Real Madrid.

And a man who has managed the pair of them together admits that they are so competitive that they always wanted to beat each other in training.

Island's football team supported by 10.000 fans.VIDEO

       

 They are the North Atlantic minnows from the land of ice and fire who have thawed the hearts of football fans across the continent.

Plucky Iceland have simply no fear as they face off against England tonight in the most important match in their history.

And the team from the smallest country to ever make it to the Euros have every right to hold their heads high.

  Because Iceland didn’t just scramble into Euro 2016. They stormed the finals in France and immediately set about stunning one of the tournament’s heavyweights by getting their way out of their group.

Now they stand on the brink of immortality in their native land if they can pull of a shock victory against Roy Hodgson's England.

Iceland’s fairytale came to an end as France.

       

      Iceland’s fairytale came to an end as France cruised into a semi-final against Germany with a blistering first-half performance.France make short work of Iceland to coast into the Euro 2016 semi final.

        Peep peep! For a meaningless second half, that was pretty enjoyable. France go through to meet Germany; Iceland have done themselves proud even in a 5-2 defeat. 

          The XI who started all five games are already legends of Icelandic football. France will hope to achieve the same status in their own country in the next seven days.

         Thanks to Iceland for making football fun in the last few weeks. And thanks to whichever higher power decreed that France will face Germany in the semi-final, because that will be an epic even before a ball is kicked. Thanks for your emails and company; I’ll leave you with this from Niall Mullen.

Seems Italy was team for this Euro2016.

Seems Italy was team for this Euro2016 and loses on shootout vs Germany 1-1 Italy (6-5 pens): Euro 2016 quarter-final – as it happened.

The European Championship has at last woken up. With Germany against Slovakia and Italy against Spain, there have at last been two performances worthy of the stage. After two weeks, the tournament has finally begun. It’s almost as though 16 teams was the right size for the tournament all along.

“The group stage was a little bit strange, because Uefa did some stupid things with the system,” Lukas Podolski said. “You lose the first two games and you still have a chance to get through to the next round. So it is a bit confused but for us, it doesn’t matter. Now the tournament starts.”

Some perhaps would dismiss it as German arrogance but Podolski is right: the change to the format has led to a fortnight of largely unexciting, largely pointlessfootball. International football has been struggling anyway for two to three decades to keep up with the club game: wilfully creating non-spectacles like this helps no one.

The counter-argument is the performances of Wales and Iceland, both in the quarter-finals on merit, the sort of underdog stories that enliven a tournament and refresh the spirit. Their successes, though, should not obscure just how bad much of the football in the first couple of weeks of the tournament was, how unambitious, how lacking in guile or invention or quality. And it is perhaps important not to assume that both are at Euro 2016 only because of the expansion to 24 teams.

Whenever complaints are raised about the bloating of the World Cup or the Euros, there comes a response that is both patronising to the smaller sides and seems to miss the point of what a tournament is: that it’s somehow healthy for everybody to get a go, that it’s important not to create a closed shop, that everybody has a right to be there. Perhaps we could have an egg-and-spoon race as well for those who nearly qualified. The result of such woolliness is mediocrity under the banner of inclusivity.

Everybody has a right to try to qualify and if they’re good enough they will (there is an issue with the way the seedings work which risks making failure self-perpetuating, but that’s a different issue).

Look at qualifying this time. Five sides finished having come third in their groups – Turkey and then, through the play-offs, Ireland, Hungary, Ukraine and Sweden. With all due respect to Ireland’s victory against an Italy side whose performance against Spain showed how little they’d cared in that final group game, would any of them really have been missed by anybody other than bar-owners and TV crews desperate for colourful fans anticking drunkenly? 

Hungary were well organised and smart enough to pick off a dismal Austria but their fundamental lack of quality was highlighted by the 4-0 defeat against a Belgium side that still looks more like a collection of individuals than a team.

Lose three more of the sides who qualified in second – Albania and Romania had the poorest records plus (trying to allow for the fact that certain sides having already qualified eased off) Russia – and that leaves 15 of the 16 sides who made it through the group (Hungary for Austria the only difference). In other words, the less fancied teams who have impressed would have qualified anyway. They have done well because they have been good sides for a couple of years; it’s not some miracle that struck just before the tournament itself.

Pit two sides of differing abilities against each other and, inevitably, the weaker one defends. They should defend. It is their duty to defend. That’s how they can get the best possible result out of the game. That’s true at club level as well – although the variation in quality tends to be less defined. The difference at international level is that attacking structures are less well-defined.

Defences vary little. Most sides, once their initial press is done, settle back to a system with two banks of four. Sometimes there’s an extra player in one bank or other and sometimes there’s a player between the banks, but the principles do not differ radically from one team to another. Players coming from clubs to the national team can adapt relatively quickly.

Germany win the shootout vs Italy.

Germany missed three penalties yet still triumphed over Italy in an often shambolic shoot-out at the end of a draining match.

Germany win the shootout after bonucci penalty cancels out Ozil opener.

They are the greatest penalty-taking nation in the history of the game, and this Germany team did not fail as they dispatched Italy from Euro 2016 after a in-out that finished at ten minutes to midnight and saw more drama than it usually takes for the world champions to win these things.

A place in the semi-final in Marseille on Thursday for Joachim Loew’s team when finally Jonas Hector dispatched the 18th penalty of the shoout-out past Gianluigi Buffon after Manchester United’s Matteo Darmian had his previous one saved. Three Germans had missed before then – including their goalscorer on the night Mesut Ozil – but Manuel Neuer saved twice over the course of the penalties to rescue them.   

Germany to the Final.

How will Germany cope without the old guard? While the changes since the World Cup have not exactly been wholesale there are some notable absentees, former captain Philipp Lahm and squad mainstay Per Mertesacker having retired from international football. 

Bastian Schweinsteiger is unlikely to see much playing time in France, too, and experienced heads like these are not easily replaced. Germany have depth and top-level experience in most areas but may not quite be the battle-hardened, sleek side that came out on top in Rio two years ago. Then again, the German mentality is rarely in question when major tournaments come around.

If Germany want to move alongside Spain in the pantheon of recent greats, a European Championship win seems necessary. The world champions lost out to Italy in the semi-finals four years ago and were runners-up back in 2008; now they hope their taste for success can extend to the continental stage and there are few who would confidently back against them. 

Joachim Low’s team had a few ups and downs in qualifying, and it has not been a straightforward two years since that extra-time win over Argentina, but their pool of quality remains the envy of almost everybody – and it would be a major surprise if they fell short of the last four, as a bare minimum.

‘In 1946 Iceland played against Ilford. Now it’s England in the Euros … Afram Island!’

 When Halldor Einarsson’s sports kit company started selling shirts to Iceland fans for Euro 2016, they added a felt-tip pen to the deal. The three Group B fixtures were printed on the right sleeve, with a box to fill in the scores.

“I thought we would maybe get one draw from those three games, and I wasn’t arrogant enough to leave space for a fourth match,” said Einarsson, one of the best-known figures in Icelandic football, who once arranged a summer visit by Manchester United and persuaded George Best to play against them.

     His predictions were wrong and his company, Henson, has had to go into overtime to try to cope with demand. Iceland won one, drew two and they next play the biggest match in the nation’s sporting history, a knockout tie against England in Nice tomorrow.

“We’re making more shirts, these ones with the England game on them,” said Einarsson, who was twice a national champion in his playing days with Valur, one of Reykjavik’s top clubs..

   

   “If we win, we can find room for the next one, the quarter-final. No matter how far the team progresses, we will find room to put the matches on there. It’s hard to cope with demand, but it’s great fun.”

Henson and fellow members of the older generation in Icelandic football can barely believe what is happening, but already they are talking about beating England.

.

“This is our dream come true, but for so long it was just a dream,” said Sigmundur Steinarsson, who has written a two-part history of football in Iceland, and has reported on the game since 1970. “We didn’t play a game on grass until 1957. Before that, we played on lava – crushed gravel. We were a very bad team for many years.”

The first “international” contests were in 1939, when the Islington Corinthians, a now defunct amateur team from north London, defeated Iceland’s finest 1-0 and 3-2 in Reykjavik. The visitors were presented with a gift: copies of Iceland: Nature and Nation in Photographs.

True Leader.C'mon!

While historically being one of Europe's smaller football nations, Iceland have enjoyed more success in the 21st century. In thequalifying rounds for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Iceland reached the play-offs before losing to Croatia. Iceland reached its first major tournament, UEFA Euro 2016, after a qualification campaign which included home and away wins over the Netherlands. In doing this they became the smallest ever nation to qualify for a major tournament. After advancing to the knockout stages of Euro 2016, Iceland defeated England in the round of 16, advancing to the quarter finals.

In a friendly against Estonia on 24 April 1996 in Tallinn, Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen entered as a substitute for his father Arnór. This marked the first time that a father and son played in the same international match.
Iceland fans went wild as their national squad crushed England 2–1 to secure a shocking Euro 2016 triumph in the round of 16, one that finished with England chief Roy Hodgson tendering his abdication. 

Iceland had never fit the bill for a noteworthy competition before the European Championship, and it is the littlest nation in the competition. That didn't prevent the island country from toppling England, with Ragnar Sigurdsson and Kolbeinn Sigthorsson scoring after Wayne Rooney opened the scoring in the fourth moment from the punishment spot. 


Look as Iceland's fans, a number of whom pressed a town square in Reykjavik, go insane amid and after the notable win.

Island football stars say 'WE'RE NEVER GOING HOME!'

                       As the final whistle blew in Nice, Benediktsson exploded into a barely intelligible rant, proudly telling the Three Lions their time was up.

He cried: “This is done! This is done! We are never going home!

“Did you see that! Did you see that! Never wake me from this amazing dream!”

Gudmunder benediktsson may not be a household name – but his glorious commentary of the Iceland team’s remarkable run in Euro 2016 has fast become a global hit.

Iceland fans celebrate their remarkable victory in NiceThe high-pitched shrieks of the excitable commentator were back in full swing last night as England were dumped out of the tournament by the smallest nation in the competition.

     Their plane flew low over the capital Reykjavik before landing at Keflavik airport where the local fire services gave them a fire hose guard of honour with shooting water creating a rainbow.

   Striker Kolbeinn Sigthorsson, who scored a consolation goal in thecrushing 5-2 defeat to the hosts at the Stade de France on Sunday said he was happy to be home.

"It was a dream come true to get that support," he said of the estimated 30,000 fans -- some ten percent of the population -- who followed the nation in France.

"We experienced something simply wonderful, it was a dream come true and we are proud to have brought such cheer to our country," he said, adding that the friendly behaviour of the fans had done the country proud.

The players were then paraded through the streets of the capital on a double decker bus in the direction of Arnarholl Park, to celebrate with their fans and sing the famous "huh" - the Viking war chant - which is actually Scottish, punctuated by hand clapping.

"Fairy tales still exist! It's rare - if indeed this has ever happened - to unite us Icelanders as you did on the football pitch," Prime Minister Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson told the team in downtown Reykjavik, to the resounding cheers of tens of thousands of supporters.

"You are a national treasure!" he added as fans waved flags and team jerseys, and children held aloft cards with their favourite players.

To the delight of the crowd, the heroes of the day sang the "huh" watched emotionally by Swedish coach Lars Lagerback who hailed a "team performance" and confided he felt "at home" whenever he was in Iceland.

Many present had also followed the team to France. "They react with pride even after defeat. They did not give up, they did not stop, they return as heroes," said August Ingi Kristjansson, a 23-year-old who was present in Stade de France on Sunday.

"I'm just so proud!" added Sverrir Gardarsson. "What will happen next? We will rule the world!"

Iceland drew with Hungary and Portugal, then beat Austria to book a last-16 place, where they then defeated England 2-1 to set up a quarter-final with France.

         Iceland's footballers received a heroes welcome on returning home on Monday following their astonishing run to the Euro 2016 quarter-finals in France.

France-Ireland -Irish pub in Nice ready for EURO 2016!

     On a Wednesday night in Paris in November, 2009, Thierry Henry deliberately handled the ball twice while passing it to William Gallas, who scored against the Republic of Ireland.

        The Republic’s players went ballistic, as well they should. They had seen the handball. The referee didn’t. Their pleading got them nowhere. The goal counted. It was a playoff match to decide whether France or Ireland would go to South Africa to play in the 2010 World Cup. France qualified and that was that.

       Except it wasn’t. Thierry Henry quickly admitted to illegal play, but said it was the referee’s job to administer the game, not his. For a couple of days, it was the biggest story in the world. A terrible injustice had been done. The Irish soccer authority pleaded with FIFA to rethink the situation, suggesting the match be replayed or Ireland offered a place at the World Cup.

       FIFA president Sepp Blatter, already in South Africa to talk up the tournament, revealed to an audience what the Irish had requested. He sneered. And he laughed. He literally guffawed at the nerve of the Irish.

        A few days later, he apologized, sort-of, for his rudeness. Shortly after that, FIFA quietly wrote a cheque to the Irish soccer organization for €5-million. Hush money. This was only revealed in the investigations last year that illuminated the crazy money going into and out of the governing body of international soccer.

      Where’s Sepp Blatter now? Disgraced, removed from his job at FIFA and bleating about his innocence. Maybe he’s banging fists on the pile of money he accumulated in his FIFA career. But who’s sneering now?

      For the first time since that infamous night in Paris, Ireland will face France. Sunday afternoon in Lyons, the two countries play in the second, knockout round of Euro 2016. The shadow of the notorious handball incident hangs over the game, making it a delicious revenge match. That’s what the commentators will say on TV. There are pundits in newspapers who will say that too. There are Irish fans who will feel that way. There are French fans who worry the Irish will feel that way. A great grudge is held and the Irish want revenge.

     Seven years is a long, long time in soccer. Professional players are trained, not only to kick the ball and play as a unit, but to forget the past. What happened before is gone, yesterday’s news. It’s the next encounter that matters. Prepare for that, forget the past.

    In an Irish context, that is codswallop. Long memories, have the Irish. What happened three hundred years ago is a fresh wound, an outrage that calls for retribution. The Irish hold grievances, with a livid indignation longer that Canada has been a country. One hundred and fifty years is yesterday. Seven years is five minutes ago.

     Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill has been circumspect about the revenge-plot subtext of Sunday’s game. “I think we have decided to forget about it. I think that it will be a talking point but I don’t think it will concern us when we play the game,” O’Neill said on Thursday at the Ireland training camp.

    Well, he would say that. O’Neill is hardly going to reveal in advance that, in the dressing room, he will quietly tell his players that this is the chance to revenge a great injustice – knock France out of the tournament they’re hosting. Make them ashamed, make them feel the sting of defeat, because they deserve it. No manager is going to reveal in advance his motivational talk.

    Besides, many of his ragtag group of players – professionals, but nowhere near the level of France’s superstars in talent and fame – were not playing for Ireland on that night of notoriety in 2009. They were simply fans, watching as part of an outraged nation. In 2009, Robbie Brady, who scored the goal that defeated Italy, was 17 years old and had just joined Manchester United’s youth academy. 

      A kid. In 2009, Seamus Coleman, who was captain of Ireland in the victory against Italy, was a bewildered 21-year-old who had landed in Liverpool to play for Everton, having spent his early career playing as a semi-professional for Sligo Rovers in Ireland. These men have long memories. They are Irish to the core. Professional short-term memory, be damned. There’s a revenge to be exacted.

      Interestingly, Thierry Henry declined to speak about the handball incident as soon as Ireland was scheduled to play France. Not a word could be extracted from him on the topic. When told of this, O’Neill couldn’t resist the wry reply, “Well, there’s a surprise!”

    As for the Irish and French media’s buildup to the game, the handball incident isn’t something they’ve decided to ignore. The populist newspaper 20 Minutes, declared: “Les Irlandais disent avoir oublié la main de Thierry Henry - mais ils n’en pensent pas un mot.” Which translates as, “The Irish say they’ve forgotten the hand of Thierry Henry – but they’ve not forgotten a word.” You can bet your blarney on it, boys and girls.

     Of course, Ireland goes into the match as underdogs. The best you can get is 9/1 odds betting on them. They have had less rest time than France. The victory over Italy took a lot out of these honest, but in many cases ordinary, players. The climax of the Italy match is unlikely to be reached again. A once-in-a-generation thing.

    But, you know, France is vulnerable. Dimitri Payet has saved games but he’s just one player. The great midfielder Paul Pogba seemed to engage and disengage in the three games to date. The defence isn’t solid – certainly less solid than Italy’s – and vulnerable in set-piece situations.

And karma counts. France went to South Africa and imploded, exiting early, after bad results and embarrassing infighting. Karma could count again. At least, that’s what The Republic of Ireland is hoping.

Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland fans will receive an award from the mayor of Paris for their "exemplary sportsmanship" during Euro 2016.

The medal, known as the Grand Vermeil, is regarded as Paris' most prestigious honour and has been awarded to a variety of cultural and political figures.

Both teams reached the knockout stages but exited Euro 2016 last weekend.

"They participated in the festive atmosphere that has been prevailing in Paris these last two weeks," said Jean-François Martins, deputy mayor for sport and tourism.

"They are a model for all the supporters of the world.

"As shown in the numerous videos that circulate on the social networks, the Parisians particularly appreciated meeting them, speaking with them and sharing those joyful moments that are essential in such a great sportive event."

Hungary, Belgium and Portugal federations charged Euro 2016:

The football associations of Hungary, Belgium and Portugal are the latest to be charged by Uefa over the behaviour of their supporters at Euro 2016.

The Hungarian federation is charged with crowd disturbances, the setting off of fireworks and the throwing of objects during their draw with Iceland.

The Belgian association is charged with the setting off of fireworks and the throwing of objects during their win over Republic of Ireland, while Portugal are charged with a field invasion during the draw with Austria.

The Hungarian case will be heard on 21 June while a date is yet to be set for the other two hearings.

On Monday, Croatia will find out whether they will be punished after crowd trouble marred the closing stages of 2-2 draw with the Czech Republic in Saint-Etienne on 17 June.

Referee Mark Clattenburg had to briefly halt the game when fireworks were thrown on the pitch, one of which exploded near a steward who was trying to remove it.

Earlier in the tournament, the Russian Football Union was fined 150,000 Euros (£119,000) and given a suspended disqualification after supporters caused trouble inside the stadium during their draw with England in Marseille.

Uefa threatened to disqualify England and Russia if there is any repeat of the violence that occurred in the centre of Marseille prior to kick-off.