The French team qualified for the quarter-finals of Euro 2024 against Belgium (1-0) on Monday thanks to an own goal by Jan Vertonghen scored at the end of the match in Düsseldorf. Vertonghen blocked a strike from Randal Kolo Muani in the 85th minute, which delivered the Blues who had been ineffective for a long time and still unable to score a single goal in open play in this competition, except thanks to two own goals and a penalty.
“We had quite a few chances, but unfortunately we didn’t hit the target too much. We have to savour it, we can’t trivialise it, we’re in the quarter-finals and they’re going home,” commented Didier Deschamps. France will face Portugal or Slovenia in the next round, who will face each other at 9pm in Frankfurt.
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1-0 | #FRABEL | #ProudToBeBluepic.twitter.com/KKX5PavoNR
— French Team ⭐⭐ (@equipedefrance) July 1, 2024
The Maignan wall
Randal Kolo Muani came on at the hour mark to replace Marcus Thuram who, like the rest of the blue attack, was rather uninspired offensively. Only his header (34th) at the near post, following a nice cross from Jules Koundé on the right side, grazed Koen Casteels’ post, before Aurélien Tchouaméni offered himself two heavy strikes that did not find the target.
A third, at the start of the second period, was pushed back by Casteels, while Kylian Mbappé, on one of his rare flashes on Monday, fired a shot that went a little too high over the opposing goal (53rd). Opposite, the Belgians were not much more inspired but had the best chances. Maignan had to push away a free kick from Kevin de Bruyne (24th), a shot from Romelu Lukaku (70th) and another from De Bruyne (83rd), and Théo Hernandez made a perfect tackle in front of Yannick Carrasco in his area (61st). As in 2018, at the World Cup in Russia, the Belgians came out with the smallest gap against France.