By Sharon Oyesiji
France scored a late winner to book its spot in the Euro 2024 quarterfinals thanks to a hard-fought 1-0 victory against Belgium on Monday.
With just five minutes of normal time remaining, Randal Kolo Muani’s effort deflected off helpless Belgium defender Jan Vertonghen to secure France’s win.
It was a tight affair at the Düsseldorf Arena, with little to separate the two sides, with French superstar Kylian Mbappé – once gain playing in a mask for the broken nose he suffered earlier in the tournament – often on the periphery on the game.
Both Belgium and France haven’t quite hit their their stride at Euro 2024 and Monday’s game followed a similar pattern, with just a few chances and defenses on top – until Vertonghen reacted slowly to Kolo Muani’s shot.
France will now face either Portugal and Slovenia in the quarterfinals, with those two teams playing later on Monday in Frankfurt.After the halftime break, Tchouaméni forced Casteels into his first real save as the Real Madrid’s deflected effort looked to be going in before the Belgium goalkeeper pushed the shot away. Moments later, Thuram went close with his close-range header flying over the bar.
Two-time European champion France has reached the final in three of the last four major international tournaments – the World Cup in 2022 and 2018 and Euro 2016 – and is now just three wins away from lifting another major trophy.