It's survival of the strongest in Euro 2020's Group of Death

THE first week of Euro 2020 has served up a true football feast. Sure, most of the matches don't start at very friendly times in this part of the world, but sacrificing some beauty sleep is a small price to pay to enjoy the top-notch action that most of the 24 teams have produced so far.

On Saturday night, the tournament's Group of Death takes centre stage once again, with the World Cup winners France taking on Hungary in Budapest (9pm kick-off, Singapore time), and Germany hosting the reigning European champions Portugal in Munich (11.59pm).

French flair

There was huge excitement when France coach Didier Deschamps unleashed his fantasy football attack against Germany on Monday, but following the narrow 1-0 win in their Euro 2020 opener it was France's midfielders who earned rave reviews.

Deschamps started with an attacking trident of Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Karim Benzema for the first time in a competitive game, but in the end it was an unfortunate own goal by Germany defender Mats Hummels that decided the clash.

Marseille newspaper La Provence described the midfield axis of Paul Pogba, N'Golo Kante and Adrien Rabiot as the "Golden Triangle", such was the control they gave France against the Germans.

But Saturday's clash against Hungary before 67,000 fans at a noisy Puskas Arena in Budapest should offer France's attack a chance to grab back the limelight after Benzema and Mbappe endured a frustrating night with goals narrowly ruled out for offside.

Roared on by their fans, Hungary defended in spirited fashion in their opening match against Portugal, but eventually collapsed to a three-goal defeat after a late meltdown, including a double from the irrepressible Cristiano Ronaldo.

Hungary have had little time to dust themselves down from that painful loss - their first in 11 games - and things are about to get harder with France likely to start with Mbappe, Griezmann and Benzema again.

That trio scored a combined 102 goals for Paris Saint Germain, Barcelona and Real Madrid last season. And if that is not a big enough headache for Hungary to endure, temperatures for Saturday's afternoon kick-off are set to soar into the mid-30s Celsius.

France will qualify for the Round of 16 if they win the first meeting of these two nations in 16 years, while another defeat for Hungary will virtually end their chances of progressing, not that many people expected anything else.

Hungary's flickering hopes took another big hit this week when midfielder Daniel Gazdag withdrew from the squad through injury, robbing them of another creative option after Dominik Szoboszlai and Zsolt Kalmar also missed out on the tournament.

Szabolcs Schon, who had a goal disallowed against Portugal when the score was 0-0 after coming on as a second-half substitute, is unlikely to force his way into the starting lineup with Hungary coach Marco Rossi set to keep faith with Roland Sallai and Adam Szalai up front.

Desperate Germans

Germany coach Joachim Loew is under pressure to find a way for his side to create more chances when they host Portugal, with their hopes of reaching the knock-out stage hanging in the balance.

Germany managed just one shot on target against France in their opening match, and Loew has called on his players to be more vigorous up front in order to defeat Portugal.

Germany have won their last four meetings with Portugal over the last two decades, most recently a 4-0 victory in the 2014 World Cup group stage as the Germans went on to win the title in Brazil.

However, much has changed in the last seven years. Germany have steadily fallen from being the world's No 1 side to 12th in the Fifa rankings.

Portugal have risen to fifth and appear to have a much-stronger squad than when they were crowned European champions in 2016.

A win in Munich would send Portugal into the knockout phase for a seventh straight European Championship.

Their star player Ronaldo has now scored a record 11 goals at five consecutive Euro finals, after his brace against Hungary. Interestingly, the 36-year-old has never scored against Die Mannschaft.

With 106 goals in 176 games for Portugal, Ronaldo is three short of the all-time international record set by Ali Daei who scored 109 goals for Iran between 1993 and 2006.

Portugal's English Premier League trio of Bruno Fernandes, Diogo Jota and Bernardo Silva are all also capable of producing match-winning moments.

Coach Fernando Santos has a powerful bench to call upon too, with the likes of Andre Silva, who scored 28 Bundesliga goals for Eintracht Frankfurt last season, Atletico Madrid star Joao Felix and Lille's Ligue 1 title-winner Renato Sanches.

"Now it's about Germany and we must keep improving," said Santos. "'Kill or be killed', as (ex-Portugal coach Luiz Felipe) Scolari used to say." REUTERS, AFP