Unbelievable.. France qualified for the semi-finals of Euro 2024 on Tuesday, against Spain, after scoring only three goals since the start of the tournament: a penalty from Kylian Mbappé and two goals from CSC. What's even stronger, the Blues won on penalties on Friday in Hamburg, in the quarter-finals against Portugal (0-0, 5-3 on penalties).
The first time in the 21st century, we had to go back to another quarter, the 1998 World Cup quarter-finals, to achieve this success against Italy.
Since then, things have been disastrous: the French have lost two World Cup finals (to Italy in 2006 and Argentina in 2022) and the round of 16 of the European Championship (to Switzerland in 2021).
16 successful shots on target against the Blues before this failure
In Hamburg, there was only one failure: the unfortunate Joao Felix. The striker, on loan from Atletico Madrid to Barcelona last season, missed his team's third attempt, after the successes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Bernardo Silva, sending it to Mike Maignan's right post. Nuno Mendes scored his goal then, in a complete defeat, as the Blues won 5-5 thanks to Ousmane Dembele, Youssouf Fofana, Jules Kounde, Bradley Barcola and Theo Hernandez.
Joao Felix, who according to the Portuguese press could return to Benfica, has had a historically poor performance. He has inevitably ended a run of 16 shots on target by the Blues' opponents since transit player Luigi Di Biagio failed to stop Fabien Barthez's crossbar in 1998.
