France 1 Belgium 0
Out of les bleus comes a classic for the purists. A Belgian fan commandeered the rotund Gaul comic book hero Obelix’s attire while France commandeered the football, only making the most of their control and poise when Randal Kolo Muani hit a late winner off Jan Vertonghen.
It goes down as an own goal, probably because Belgian goalkeeper Koen Casteels was horribly wrong-footed.
The snatch and grab victory sends France into a quarter-finals in Hamburg on Friday.
From the raucous to the refined, Belgian and French journeyed to Düsseldorf in their tens of thousands without being star-struck by the occasion. There was a sea-of-red march along the river Rhine to the Merkur Spiel Arena but the electricity generated by Georgians, Albanians and Scots has departed Euro 2024.
Only the sturdiest football nations remain.
Perhaps Antoine Griezmann sensed a slight malaise among the crowd, running towards them before kick-off with his hands aloft. They responded, briefly.
There was a sprinkling of orange at the game, as the Dutch clearly did not expect to lose to Austria in the group stages. Instead, Ronald Koeman’s side face Romania in Munich this evening.
The estimated market value of this Belgium squad is €600 million, which is half that of France. Kylian Mbappé makes up around €180 million of this figure. After smashing his nose on June 17th, he is approaching his unplayable best again.
For 85 minutes the neighbours cancelled each other out. Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku had chances to score. Both fluffed their lines.
France gave Belgium the floor for much of the first half before Antoine Griezmann and Aurélien Tchouaméni engineered a carousel of attacks, turning De Bruyne and even Lukaku into defenders.
They had to be careful, however, as yellow cards flowed from the pocket of Swedish referee Glenn Nyberg. Tchouaméni was booked for protesting a Mbappé shot, that glanced off Amadou Onana but was deemed a goal kick. Griezmann was cautioned for clipping the ankle of Jérémy Doku before the Manchester City winger could skip into the French box.
From the resulting free, Mike Maignan was caught off guard by an inswinging De Bruyne attempt, forcing the goalkeeper to panic and boot the ball away.
Adrien Rabiot picked up a third yellow from the fussy Swede for also catching Doku.
Eventually, France began to dominate. Tchouameni curved a 40-metre cross field pass for Jules Koundé whose neat touch and whipped cross was met by a Marcus Thuram bullet header. It went wide but the warning was clear; no Belgian player made an error, yet the technical majesty of Didier Deschamps team could strike at any moment.
Next, Tchouameni rifled over a long-range shot. Try as he might, the purity of his goal to knock England out of the 2022 World Cup was absent.
Mbappé, meanwhile, was masked and anonymous until Yannick Carrasco and Doku tried to rough him up. Big mistake. He swerved past them to the end line only for his cut back to be met by another ferocious, and inaccurate, Tchouameni strike.
The urgency France needed had to come from their Real Madrid-bound maestro. Sure enough, the first goal threat of the second-half came when Mbappé skinned Carrasco again and tempted De Bruyne to concede a penalty before a lethal effort cleared Casteels’ crossbar.
The hour mark brought a slick Belgian counter-attack as De Bruyne slipped a pass for Carrasco only for a textbook slide tackle by Theo Hernandez earned the left back a chest bump from Maignan.
At 0-0, it cut both ways. One of these €100 million players would have to make a difference.
Despite the stalemate, what struck the viewer was how coherent both midfields were in comparison to England. Tchouameni will never die wondering if he should shoot on sight.
The Lukaku chance – there had to be one – arrived with 20 minutes remaining. Orel Mangala came off the bench to storm down the left before inviting the big striker to test Maignan. The equally-sized goalkeeper was equal to the task.
Finally, this cagey affair opened up – William Saliba strode forward to lash France’s 14th off-target shot. But another statistic at this moment was informative: France only led 2-1 with shots on target.
Mbappé made it 15 as time ticked away.
Belgium’s best chance fell to De Bruyne in the 83rd minute. Rewarded for a diagonal run, he could not beat Maignan from 20 paces. His face spoke a thousand words.
France had had enough. Theo Hernández came menacingly off the left where a quick combination between Griezmann and N’Golo Kanté saw Kolo Muani scuff the ball past Casteels. Uefa quickly branded it a Vertonghen error. With 157 caps for his country, the 37-year-old will not be remembered for this cruel ending.
But the goal accurately summed up the match. It allows France to motor on, barely in third gear, simmering nicely.
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