Portugal, with memories of 1984 and 2000 fresh, have a score to settle against France

Portugal, losing finalists in 2004, have twice been denied by France at the semi-final stage of the tournament, including one controversial encounter.

Portugal's players take part in a training session at the team's training ground in Marcoussis, south of Paris, on July 8, 2016, ahead of their Euro 2016 final football match against France. FranciscShow more

They have been a loyal group, the Portuguese partisans of Marcoussis, south of Paris. They waited in their hundreds until past 3am on Thursday morning to greet the first men to book a place in the final of Euro 2016. They made quite a noise of it, and a spectacle draped in flags, faces painted in red, green and yellow.

The fans would be repaid later in the day for their display of affection with access to watch the squad’s light training session, at the French National rugby centre, the temporary base of the Selecao, as the national team are known: They got a wave from Cristiano Ronaldo, some eye-catching tricks with the ball from Ricardo Quaresma.

Well over a million people of Portuguese ancestry are resident in France, a high proportion the sons and daughters of immigrants who came seeking work from the 1950s onwards.

Read more:

The lowdown – Everything you need to know about Sunday's final

They will be seen and heard loudly in Saint-Denis tomorrow, their dream that their nation, the one of their hearts and origins, can reverse the odds and overcome the hosts. The precedents are discouraging, but where there is Ronaldo, there will always be hope.

Some of those who will support Portugal at the Stade des France will have been there, at Marseille’s old Velodrome, for what both French and Portuguese recall as one of the great ties of European championship history.

It was the semi-final of 1984, France again in the role of hosts and favourites, Portugal as dark horses, outsiders. But they equalised in the 74th minute, and then, to the alarm of France, went ahead eight minutes into extra time.

Portugal have been closer to winning major trophy since then, but not by much. What happened in Marseille 32 years ago is vividly recalled by French and Portuguese fans of a certain age.

France equalised with six minutes left of the extended tie-breaker. With one minute remaining on the clock, the France manager Michel Hidalgo had his notebook out to write down the names of his penalty-takers, assuming the roulette of spot-kicks was inevitable.

Then he looked up to see his midfielder Jean Tigana snaking forward, past challenges, ball at his feet. Tigana crossed, and player of the tournament Michel Platini scored a last-gasp winner, for 3-2.

France went on to win that tournament, the first of three major trophies they have lifted in their history.

The most recent of those, in 2000, contains an episode over which some Portuguese still seethe.

It was another semi-final, another tight joust that went not one minute from being settled by spot-kicks but three, and which was decided by a single penalty instead.

“It was the first time an assistant referee had signalled a penalty,” remembers Humberto Coelho, then the Portugal coach, and now part of the delegation at the Marcoussis training base.

To put it mildly, the Portugal players were vexed by linesman Igor Srmaka’s decision. He deemed the contact between Abel Xavier’s hand and a Sylvain Wiltord cross worth a penalty. Zinedine Zidane scored it.

A crushed Portugal had held the lead for much of the match, until Thierry Henry equalised Nuno Gomes’s first-half goal. France, 2-1 winners, went on to reach the final and win that in extra time.

Xavier’s furious reaction to the decision left him with a nine-month ban, and Nuno Gomes and his colleague Paulo Bento served eight and six-month suspension for losing their tempers.

So there are scores to settle tomorrow.

Portugal, semi-finalists against France on the two occasions France have won the European championship, have yet to lift the prize.

Twelve years ago, they lost a final, 1-0 to Greece. It was they who were hosts then.

They will hope their supporters, some of them Parisiens, can make them feel like they are home in Saint-Denis. They certainly feel that, when it comes to beating France, they are owed some dues.

Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE

Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport