Euro 2016 - On Reflection: France's new star, the Schweinsteiger mystery, and what now for Wales?

France will face Portugal in the Euro 2016 final and while it might not be a final between the two best teams still in the competition – when is it ever, in a knockout format? – there is plenty of intrigue leading up to Sunday’s denouement.

Here are some talking-points from a compelling set of semi-finals…

Is Fernando Santos the new Otto Rehhagel?

Actually, the deadpan Portuguese coach isn't so much the new Otto Rehhagel as the old new Rehhahel: he has already followed in the footsteps of the legendary German coach, taking on the tough job of replacing the Euro 2004-winning Greece coach Otto Rehhagel in 2010. He took Greece to UEFA Euro 2012 and did the same for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, when the team only missed out on a place in the last eight after a penalty shoot-out defeat against Costa Rica.

An indication of just how successful he was in that job can be seen in the fact that Greece finished below Faroe Islands and bottom of Group F in UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying, with one win in ten games.

He was appointed as Portugal coach in September 2014, after the team lost its first Euro 2016 qualifier at home to Albania - a result which ended the reign of Paulo Bento. The former full-back, who played for Benfica, Maritimo and Estoril, then guided Portugal to seven straight wins to get the team to France.

“I don't think there was one secret,” he said before the tournament. “Just hard work, confidence and concentration on what we had to do on each match.

"I told the players from day one that we could win the group and that this was our objective. That’s exactly what happened.”

Santos is unbeaten in 13 competitive games as Portugal coach, and now they could go all the way. His team may not be ambitious, but it plays intelligently and has a plan that it knows how to execute.

Once again, Portugal are punching above their weight in terms of country size and population. And once again, Santos has over-delivered at a major tournament. It makes you wonder if anyone at the English FA might have noticed...

Samuel Umtiti: A star is born

In no particular order, the France centre-backs missing at the tournament include Mamadou Sakho, Raphael Varane, Kurt Zouma and Jeremy Mathieu. It was only at that point, and after Adil Rami had leapfrogged him from outside the long-list, that Samuel Umtiti made it into the 23-man squad. From being seventh-choice centre-back, he is now in line to start the final after an outstanding performance against Germany. It was his second ever appearance for France; his first was against Iceland.

It was a big call from coach Didier Deschamps, who could have restored Rami to the lineup after he served his suspension. But with Germany starting without a regular centre-forward following the injury to Mario Gomez, Deschamps opted for the faster, younger man – and it proved the right decision. Umtiti was outstanding in defence, blocking, tracking and snuffing out danger from all sides.

“When I’ve made two passes and I’ve managed to take the ball out neatly, I’m happy,” he told France Football earlier this year. "But the job of a defender is to stop the opposition from scoring, to tackle if you have to, and to clear it into the stand if you need to."

Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas is usually a master at extracting maximum value for his players, but not this time: he sold Umtiti to Barcelona before the tournament for €25m. He will surely wish he had waited a few more weeks now.

Club coaches want to see international form

Who was the blond guy in Germany’s midfield, with the greying sideburns and the captain’s armband? It can't have been Bastian Schweinsteiger, as this guy was everywhere, covering every part of the pitch and driving his team forward - penalty error aside, that is.

He looked nothing like the player who was mostly injured at Manchester United last season - and even when he wasn’t injured, he certainly did not play like that. You could say the same for Aaron Ramsey, suspended for Wales’s semi-final but whose performances before then were a world away from how he plays for Arsenal.

Ready for the format complaints…

England’s coaching staff were apparently celebrating when Iceland’s last minute winner went in against Austria, as it meant they avoided a game against Portugal. Who knows how bad that might have got but expect to hear some moans about the format if Portugal go on to win the final. After all, they did finish third in Group F, and did not win a single game in the group stage.

There have also been some sniffs at France’s easier route to the final, as being in Group A allowed them to play a third-placed group team. Beyond that, though, they faced England’s conquerors Iceland (insert your own joke here about how England might have been easier opponents), and then the world champions Germany. The two finalists may not be the best two teams in the competition (that was probably the semi-final between Germany and France) but that’s the nature of knock-out football.

What next for Wales?

One of the most telling lines from a compelling tournament for Wales came from a journalist embedded with the squad, who reported that the players had been talking about how they wished this national team could play as a club side.

You can’t imagine the disparate group in the England squad saying something similar – and you can’t help but wonder where this Wales team would finish in the Premier League.

It won’t happen of course but the next challenge for Chris Coleman is to do it all again and keep the players motivated for the World Cup qualifiers, in a tricky group that contains Austria, Serbia, Ireland and Moldova.

“We don’t want this to be a one-off for Welsh football,” said Joe Allen. “We want this to be what inspires us to do it again and again.

"With the quality we have got in the team and the setup we have got, we are confident we will do that.

"We weren’t in France to be like tourists. We wanted to make our mark and set the tone for the World Cup. The age of the group will mean we are together for the next few years, at least.”

Wales have had a taste of major tournaments and they don't want to wait another 58 years before the next one.

Grizou is the man

This generation of fans has been spoilt by the talents of the two players at their top of their field: Messi and Ronaldo have rewritten the rulebook on goalscoring and forced us to change our expectations on players. They have been so far ahead of the field for so long now.

But it could be time for a changing of the guard. Paul Pogba is the most outspoken French player on this team, he talks about wanting to win the Ballon D’Or and become a legend. In so doing, he puts more pressure on himself, as we could see in some of his performances earlier in the tournament.

Antoine Griezmann is different, though. Rejected by clubs in France for being too small – ironic considering his headed goals against Albania and Ireland were huge for France – he learnt his football in Spain. And now he is on the verge of leading France to another title on home soil, just as Michel Platini did in 1984 and Zinedine Zidane did in 1998.

If France win on Sunday, then Griezmann would surely be a favourite to win the Ballon D’Or – not that he is as obsessed with individual prizes as Ronaldo is. A few years ago, Ronaldo and Messi were streets ahead of the rest. Now the gap is smaller; and Griezmann is the player bridging it.