Reuters: Antoine Griezmann’s double fired France into the Euro 2016 final as an emotional smash and grab 2-0 win over a territorially dominant Germany on Thursday ended 58 years of tournament suffering at their hands.

Griezmann drove in a penalty at the end of the first half after a needless handball by Germany captain Bastian Schweinsteiger.

The striker then poked the ball home for the host nation in the 72nd minute following a blunder by goalkeeper Manuel Neuer to set up a meeting with Portugal in Paris on Sunday.

World champions Germany dominated in terms of possession but their lack of a deadly finisher cost them and the razor-sharp Griezmann, whose double took his tournament-leading goal tally to six, was the difference.

“We are extremely happy and it was beautiful to live it,” said Griezmann.

“But there is still one match left. We have to keep our feet on the ground and from tomorrow let’s prepare for this final.”

It was the first time France defeated Germany in a competitive match since the 1958 World Cup, a drought that included defeats in the semi-finals of the 1982 and 1986 World Cups and the quarter-finals two years ago.

Their reward is a place in the final where they will be strong favourites to emulate the teams of 1984 and 1998 who won the European and world titles respectively on home soil.

“I have played in many finals, most of them on the pitch. Now I’m on the bench,” said France coach Didier Deschamps, captain of the victorious 1998 squad.

“We deserve it. We played the best team in the world and we knocked them out. Yes, we suffered, but we never gave up. I always trusted my players and this is their reward.”

Germany will look at the statistics and wonder how they failed to score.

After defender Jerome Boateng’s handball had given Italy a lifeline in the quarter-finals, their captain’s similarly inexplicable high hand swung the game France’s way when they most needed it.

“There weren’t too many things that went wrong, we were the better team,” said Germany coach Joachim Loew.

Portugal to win Euro 2016, predicts oracle elephant Zella

​Reuters: Portugal will lift the Euro 2016 trophy on Sunday after beating France, Zella, the oracle elephant in Stuttgart, predicted yesterday.

It didn’t take long for the 49-year-old female elephant, who in the past has shown her psychic powers, to chose a ball with the Portuguese flag from a basket at the zoo where she lives. Amid great expectation, Zella went straight to to Portuguese ball and handed it out to her caretaker.

Doctor Thomas Koeplin, director of the Wilhelmina zoological-botanical garden, said her bet for Cristiano Ronaldo’s side had come a bit as a surprise but admitted he would like to see the “Bleus” winning instead. France beat Germany 2-0 in the tournament’s semi-finals on Thursday (July 07).

“We asked whether it would be Portugal or France who would win the final. And she chose Portugal, she chose Cristiano Ronaldo, which was a bit of a surprising choice, but then again, she has made other surprising choices in the past, so we will see if that is true or not. I would have guessed for France to win the Euro and I stick to that, but let’s see if she is right or if I am right,” he told Reuters.

Zella predicted her home team’s win over Slovakia, host France’s victory over the Republic of Ireland or England’s defeat to Iceland.

Koeplin said the reason to trust her prediction was her proven expertise in the world of sports.