Group F is tough. Germany and France have both won the World Cup this decade, Portugal are the reigning kings of the European Championship itself and Hungary have a full Puskas Arena cheering them on.
La Roja, of course, have won both the World Cup and the European Championship this decade and also have home advantage, but aren’t heading into the competition with the same confidence as France or Portugal.
They opened their account at Euro 2020 this evening in Munich, where they locked horns with old European rivals Germany. The deadlock was broken in the 20th minute.
The records will put it down as a Mats Hummels own goal, but this moment belonged to Paul Pogba. The Manchester United midfielder, linked to Real Madrid, produced a stunning pass to find Lucas Hernandez out left and set up the goal.
Pogba was active in the second half, too, freed by N’Golo Kante. This time he fed another Madrid target, Kylian Mbappe, who showed up his opposing number before curling a truly delicious effort into the far bottom corner only for the linesman to rule it out for offside.
France had another goal disallowed for offside in the 85th minute, with both Pogba and Mbappe involved. The former threaded through the latter with another delectable and incisive pass, with the latter then teeing up Madrid marksman Karim Benzema, recently recalled to the national team. He finished with his customary cool, but was offside.
