France eliminated Portugal on penalties and will face Spain in the semi-finals of Euro 2024.
The duel was as expected. Tense and tight between two teams that know how to defend perfectly, and much less how to attack. But in the end, it was the French who won at the end of the suspense at the end of an interminable and breathless quarter-final this Friday evening in Hamburg (0-0, 5 tab to 3), and thus take the path to the semi-finals of Euro-2024, against Spain next Tuesday in Munich.
Mbappé’s team was in great difficulty once again and Didier Deschamps brought on Bradley Barcola at half-time of extra time in place of the captain.
Finally, it was at the end of the penalty shootout that the French had the last word, thanks in particular to Joao Felix’s miss. France overcame the penalty shootout curse after the failures against Italy at the 2006 World Cup, Switzerland at Euro 2020 and Argentina at the 2022 World Cup.
Spain surprises host country Germany
The outcome came at the end of the second period of extra time. This Friday, July 5, in a very tight match, Spain finally got the better of theGermanyafter a late goal from Mikel Merino in the 119th minute.
La Roja qualified for the semi-finals thanks to this unstoppable header from the Real Sociedad player, who came on earlier in the game. A happy outcome for the Spaniards, who alternated between excellent and less good during this match. Cruel, however, for the Germans, eliminated in front of their home crowd, while they had dominated extra time.
It should be noted that Spain also had a share of luck in this match. A penalty that was supposed to be punishable on a handball by Cucurella (107th) was not whistled by Taylor, the English referee of the match. The Mannschaft, for its part, had several chances (108th, 117th), without finding the fault.
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