Antoine Griezmann believes he will lose out to
Cristiano Ronaldo for this year's Ballon d'Or
award as a result of France being beaten 1-0 by
Portugal in the Euro 2016 final.
Griezmann, 25, finished with the Golden Boot
as the tournament's top scorer.
However, the
French striker failed to add to his six goals in
the hosts' extra-time defeat at the Stade de
France on Sunday.
The Atletico Madrid forward saw a first-half
header wonderfully saved by Portugal
goalkeeper Rui Patricio, before heading a much
easier chance over the bar later in the game.
The final had been billed in some quarters as a
battle between Griezmann and Real Madrid star
Ronaldo, 31, with the winner expected to claim
the Ballon d'Or award as the world's best
player.
But Griezmann said that the prospect of
winning the individual award was not something
he had thought about prior to Sunday's game.
"No, it will come if it has to come," Griezmann
said. "Am I still in with a chance of winning?
Cristiano Ronaldo won the biggest
competitions. I think that that's it -- it's done."
Ronaldo had already won the Champions
League with Real this season, scoring the
winning penalty in a shootout against
Griezmann's Atletico in May. But the Real
Madrid forward made little impact in the Euro
2016 final as he was taken off on a stretcher
25 minutes into the game after failing to
recover from a rough early tackle by France's
Dimitri Payet.
And ex-France international Christophe Dugarry
said he thought at the time that Ronaldo's
withdrawal with a knee injury was going to be
the turning point of the match.
"Yes and I wasn't the only one," Dugarry told Le
Parisien. "The French players thought so too.
"Unconsciously, they maybe believed that the
hardest part was done. But no.
"Success was on Portugal's side. We
understood that when we saw Eder's goal.
"
He shot without looking at the goal, almost to
get rid of the ball and without necessarily
believing that he would score. And it went in. In
the end, it's a super goal and a stroke of
genius."
