France Edges Belgium to Reach Euro 2024 Quarter-Finals with Late Own Goal Victory

France defeated Belgium 1-0 in a hard-fought match in Duesseldorf on Monday, moving on to the quarterfinals of the Euro 2024 tournament thanks to a late own goal by Jan Vertonghen. After dominating the match in the round of sixteen, France appeared destined for extra time due to their careless finishing, but with five minutes remaining, they managed to overcome the opposition.

Replace Randal Once the ball was in the Belgian penalty area, Kolo Muani launched a shot that was headed wide until it was deflected by the unlucky Vertonghen and went past goalie Koen Casteels. The fortunate break sent the 2022 World Cup runners-up into a last-eight match on Friday in Hamburg, where they are still in the running to win the European championship three times.

In their four tournament games, France has not scored from open play. Their captain, Kylian Mbappe, scored once from a penalty against Poland, and their other two goals came from defenders on the opposing side. Crucially, though, their defense is incredibly strong since they have only let just one goal—a penalty—so far.

After what will go down as a disastrous tournament for them, Belgium bows out despite having an excellent defense against Romelu Lukaku and his teammates. In Belgium’s instance, this was retaliation for their painful 1-0 loss to France in the 2018 World Cup semi-finals, which still stings six years later.

France, on the other hand, had a point to prove at the Euros after losing to Switzerland on penalties in the round of sixteen three years prior, a very disappointing outcome in between trips to back-to-back World Cup finals. Before traveling to Germany, the French were viewed as the clear favorites to win this competition, but they performed poorly in the group stage.

Not helping matters was Mbappe’s fractured nose in their first game against Austria, and Antoine Griezmann’s inconsistent play has also been an issue. After being benched for the last group game against Poland, Griezmann made one of two substitutions here, with Marcus Thuram replacing the outgoing wingers Ousmane Dembele and Bradley Barcola.

Domenico Tedesco, the coach of Belgium, responded sharply to his team’s lackluster group stage performances. To provide Lukaku as much attacking danger as possible, Yannick Carrasco and Lois Openda were given starts, while captain Kevin De Bruyne took a more subdued position.

The hope, for the neutrals at least, was that so much attacking talent would lead to an open game full of goals, but the reality was somewhat different. In the first half, Belgium was content to keep their distance from France and did not put opposition goalkeeper Mike Maignan to the test. France possessed oodles of the ball, however often looked untidy, inaccurate and fairly flat, with Griezmann appearing lost on the right wing.

Also Read: Portugal Advances to Euro 2024 Quarter-Finals with 3-0 Victory (Penalty) over Slovenia

However, they had opportunities in the first half, as Aurelien Tchouameni twice missed the mark and Thuram headed just wide from Jules Kounde’s enticing cross just after the half-hour mark. Then, with France picking up their intensity at the start of the second half, Real Madrid midfielder Tchouameni put Casteels to the test with a deflected long-range shot.

A goal appeared to be imminent as Mbappe surged inside and curled a shot narrowly over. An hour in, Belgium nearly made a breakthrough when William Saliba lost possession on halfway and De Bruyne released Carrasco. Just as Carrasco was about to shoot, Theo Hernandez arrived and made a fantastic save block.

Twenty minutes from the end of regular time, Maignan was eventually forced to make a save to stop a drive by Lukaku and was again had to deny De Bruyne.

It was starting to look like one goal would win the match, and in the 85th, Les Bleus prevailed thanks to a goal from Kolo Muani, who was set up by N’Golo Kante and deflected off Vertonghen.