Substitute Randal Kolo Muani's shot forced an own goal five minutes from time and gave France a nervous but deserved 1-0 win in the round of 16 of the 2024 European Championship against a disappointing Belgium on Monday.
France did most of the running in a cautious game but were careless in finishing until a beautiful combination of passes, completed by N'Golo Kanté, finally created space for Kolo Muani, who was able to direct his shot off the leg of Jan Vertonghen and into the net.
France will now face the winner of Monday's match between Portugal and Slovenia in the quarter-finals in Hamburg on Friday.
“We enjoyed it, we pushed hard, we had a lot of attempts, but we missed the target,” said Kolo Muani after the game. “I was lucky [on the goal]. The coach told me to bring my energy… to create danger with my speed. I tried to bring some freshness into the game.”
It was a suitably shabby deciding goal for a disappointing game and means France are still yet to score a goal from open play at this tournament, having conceded two own goals and a Kylian Mbappé penalty in their four games so far.
Unsurprisingly, France coach Didier Deschamps saw things differently: “It's nice. It was close, but we had possession and more chances.”
French players celebrate after scoring a goal against Belgium at Euro 2024.
KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images
“We always have the ability to score more goals. That's been the case with us since the start of the European Championship, but that doesn't mean we can't score goals. We don't want that to be a psychological barrier.”
Deschamps is aiming to become the first man to win the World Cup and the European Championship as both a player and a coach, but he knows better than most that what matters in tournaments is not how you play, but how far you get.
“We have done a lot of good things. We have to savour that, it is quite an achievement. We are in the quarter-finals, they are going home. That is a good habit,” said Deschamps.
The duel between the officially second-best (France) and third-best (Belgium) teams in the world was lackluster; both teams dragged themselves into the knockout phase after unimpressive group stage draws and managed to score just two goals each in their three matches.
Belgium clearly had a plan to take any tempo out of the game and at times played slower than walking speed, with Kevin De Bruyne often operating directly in front of his back four.
France's best chance of the first half came in the 34th minute, when Jules Koundé delivered a sharp cross that reminded striker Marcus Thuram of his header that went wide – and then spent the next two minutes berating himself for it.
Aurélien Tchouaméni forced Koen Casteels into his first save of the day shortly after half-time, while the ever-lively Mbappé wasted a good chance as France began to interplay some passes.
A rare Belgian foray was interrupted by a brilliant tackle from Theo Hernández just as Yannick Carrasco was about to shoot, before Romelu Lukaku and De Bruyne forced Mike Maignan into good saves.
The French team's poor finishing continued: William Saliba and Mbappé both scored before Kolo Muani scored the winner shortly before the end.
This story uses information from Reuters.
