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Thierry Henry warns France about ‘ugly’ Portugal ahead of Euro 2016 final
Published 10:45 10 Jul 2016 BST
Homesport
France will go into the Euro 2016 final as favourites, but Thierry Henry has urged them to be wary of opponents Portugal.
Henry, a member of the French squad that won the European Championships back in 2000, warned Didier Deschamps and his squad that Portugal are capable of making the game 'ugly'. He suggested Cristiano Ronaldo will always have chances to score, regardless of how his team-mates play, as proved to be the case in the semi-final victory over Wales. Ronaldo achieved a hang time of 0.7 seconds for his header against Chris Coleman's team, powering the ball beyond Wayne Hennessey at 44.3mph.
"Ronaldo can be anonymous, lose a lot of balls, but he still knows that he can score. He stays focused," Henry told the BBC.
"Wales did a good job against Ronaldo. He was nowhere to be seen - and then 1-0. It looked like he was getting annoyed, but how do you stop that?"
But despite the threat of Ronaldo, Henry believes France have what it takes to win on home soil, just as they did in the final of the 1998 World Cup.
"We have a habit of winning tournaments at home. There is something about our culture," the former Arsenal striker added.
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