Day -709. WorldCup2018
Fans of Portugal may say there is added incentive for them to reach the Euro 2016 final, and for them to have France as opponents, in order to exact revenge for their controversial defeat to France in the Euro 2000 semifinal. It's been a long time and maybe revenge is a strong word, but it would add some spice to the final.
That semifinal was decided by a sudden death golden goal (why did FIFA/UEFA get rid of the golden goal?). But it wasn't any normal golden goal. It was a penalty awarded to France for a handball by the, shall we say colourful Portuguese defender, Abel Xavier on the goal line as he tried to block a shot. The Portuguese absolutely lost it on the referees and his assistant (were they still called linesmen then?), and their anger got even worse after France scored the penalty to win the match. The Portuguese coach got involved as did many of the players and there were lengthy suspensions handed out by UEFA.
I thought of this today as I wondered about a France-Portugal final. So I planned to link to video here to show the incident in all its ugly glory. I had re-watched it a few years ago on youtube. Today I didn't have any luck. All I got were a bunch of happy UEFA highlight videos. All the controversial ones were gone. Somebody at UEFA must have been very busy asking youtube to delete anything that could tarnish the good name of the Euros. So, if you didn't see it at the time or can't remember it you just have to take my word for it. It was end-of-football-match controversy at its' best.
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