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Portugal were knocked out of the 2020-21 UEFA Nations League after a 1-0 defeat to France at the Estadio de Luz as N'Golo Kante's strike put the world champions into the semi-finals.
The Chelsea star pounced on a mistake from Rui Patricio, who spilled Adrian Rabiot's shot into the former's path. Kante calmly tapped the ball home from point-blank range for his second international strike.
The Seleccao weren't poor; they created several half-chances, but lacked the cutting edge to finish them off, with Cristiano Ronaldo also missing a couple of good chances.
Les Blues will play their final fixture of the competition at home to Sweden on Wednesday while dethroned champions Portugal will be away at Croatia on the same day.
On that note, here are the five hits and flops from the match:
Hit: Antoine Griezmann (France)
Without Kylian Mbappe, the reigning world champions had to look somewhere else for goals, and Antoine Griezmann was supposedly the man to deliver. But he instead turned creator for the night, creating all of France's best moments with his ingenuity and expansive passing range.
The Barcelona star was a constant thorn in Portugal's flesh, flitting around in the gap between the hosts' midfield and defence to adroitly knit attacks together. Griezmann also sent in some excellent deliveries from set-pieces, one of which came off the crossbar after Raphael Varane headed it for Adrian Rabiot to shoot.
He ended the match with an 87% passing success and three key passes. While scoring one himself would've been the icing on the cake for Antoine Griezmann, he helped initiate Kante's winning goal and turned in a Man-of-the-Match performance.
Flop: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
The going has got really tough for Cristiano Ronaldo ever since he's broken the 100-goal barrier to edge closer to Ali Daei's all-time international goal-scoring record.
He fired blanks against Spain and France last month, missed the Sweden game because of COVID-19, came off the bench to score against Andorra in midweek and misfired against France once again.
The Portugal captain was back in the Seleccao lineup against the world champions but was left frustrated due to the lack of clear-cut opportunities. But that wasn't for the dearth of service, though. Ronaldo just couldn't connect with some of the crosses because they were either too high, or they didn't get to him inside the area, while his prowess at set-pieces also deserted him.
The Portugal captain has now gone almost 450 minutes without scoring against Les Blues, a poor record for someone of his stature. He'll have another opportunity to erase the anomaly at next year's Euros when the two sides will meet again, as both France and Portugal have been drawn in the same group. But for now, Ronaldo needs to focus on the next game for Portugal.
Hit: Rui Patricio (Portugal)
France cut a swathe through Portugal on the night, and while they were guilty of missing some good chances, the man who kept them from running away with the game was Rui Patricio, who pulled off many saves to deny Les Blues on several occasions.
Even as the visitors unleashed wave after wave of attacks, the Wolverhampton Wanderers custodian stood firm in the face of the onslaught. Anthony Martial, in particular, could've scored twice in the first-half had it not been for Patricio's intervention.
He was at fault for the French goal, though, as the shot-stopper spilled an effort from Rabiot straight into the path of an onrushing Kante, but overall he was crucial to keeping the tie in the balance till that moment.
Flop: Anthony Martial (France)
Without taking any credit away from Patricio, Anthony Martial should've done better with his chances in Lisbon, considering his quality and lethal finishing skills he has displayed at Manchester United over the years.
However, Martial seemed to lack confidence on the ball. The winger looked hesitant with his shots, and his indecisiveness in the final third cost him some really good opportunities to end his long international goal drought.
After being completely ignored from the France team in the inaugural edition of the Nations League as well as the Euro 2020 qualifiers, Didier Deschamps opted to give Martial another chance to prove himself after his recent run of good form with the Red Devils.
However, in seven games this calendar year, which includes two friendlies, the 24-year old has struggled badly, failing to score even once. Given his wastefulness against Portugal in Lisbon, Deschamps must have been left wondering if he made the right decision by starting him in place of Olivier Giroud.
Hit: N'Golo Kante (France)
This is really up there for N'Golo Kante as one of the top five performances of his career. Not just because he scored the winning goal that sealed France's passage into the knockout rounds, but also because he ran the show in midfield, taking Portugal to the cleaners with his ball distribution skills as well as his defensive work rate.
Kante was the key to winning back possession in the centre of the park. He made five successful tackles and also created two chances early on for Martial and Griezmann. He completed 88% of his passes too.
The Chelsea star's movements and strength in possession caused a lot of problems for Portugal, who struggled to contain him all night. And when he was presented with a chance to score, Kante took it clinically, pouncing on a loose ball from Patricio to score only his second international goal.
