#2 Eder (Portugal) vs France – 2016 UEFA Euro Final
In the recently concluded UEFA Euro 2016, hosts France were up against a resilient Portugal side in the final of the tournament. Going into the final, France were considered as the favorites to land the trophy as they had their star attacking players Dimitri Payet and Antoine Greizmann in form. But Portugal also had some of the big names in their ranks – mainly Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Nani.
The game started off with the 3-time Ballon d’Or winner having to go off the field with a knee injury after he was tackled by Payet. It took away Portugal’s main attacking threat and gave France an advantage in such a big game. But as fate would have it, the hosts could not break down Portugal’s solid defence inside the 90 minutes and the game went into extra-time with scores levelled 0-0.
Portugal’s coach Fernando Santos had brought on striker Eder in the 79th minute of regulation time. The striker had never scored an international goal for his country in a competitive fixture before. But in the 109th minute of the game, when it looked like both teams were settling for a penalty shoot-out, the striker scored the winner to cause the biggest upset in Euro history, giving Portugal its first major international title.
