France beat Portugal on penalties (2024)

France will play Spain for a place in the 2024 European Championship final after Theo Hernandez struck the winning penalty in a 5-3 shootout win against Portugal.

Joao Felix was the only player to miss from the spot after the Hamburg quarter-final finished goalless after 120 minutes.

Both sides struggled in front of goal in a forgettable match that saw their biggest stars fail to deliver.

Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo blazed over from close range in extra-time while France skipper Kylian Mbappe looked uncomfortable after suffering another blow to the face and was withdrawn before the decisive shootout.

Margins are extremely fine in football.

Of the nine penalties taken in this shoot-out, eight-and-a-half of them were perfect. But Joao Felix’s penalty struck the post and ended Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo’s dreams.

After his remarkable heroics in the previous round against Slovenia, saving all three penalties he faced, the stage was set for keeper Diogo Costa to take Portugal through again.

France had also lost their previous three penalty shoot-outs in major tournaments, not winning one since the 1998 World Cup.

But this time they prevailed, thanks to a huge slice of fortune in the lottery of a shoot-out.

One more from France head coach Didier Deschamps, who took off Kylian Mbappe at half-time in extra time — the France captain having taken a ball full in his masked face, having broken his nose in the opening group game against Austria.

Here is what Deschamps said of Mbappe:

💬 “He was obviously tired and it is not easy. I saw him struggling in the first half of extra time. There was no point in leaving him on, even if he was a penalty taker.

“Kylian has always been honest with me and the group. It seemed normal to me to bring on some freshness.

“We’re in the semi-finals and it’s something we shouldn’t take for granted, even if we may be used to it recently. I was already enjoying being in the quarter-finals. Now we go to win it.”

Bernardo Silva gets it. The Portugal midfielder knows his country fell the right side of the shootout gods in the round of 16, and that is not something you can always count on. Here is the Manchester City midfielder speaking to CNN Portugal:

💬 “Just as it was cruel for Slovenia in (the) round of 16, today was cruel for us. We move on; it’s a lesson and we’ll try to improve. We have to learn from it.

“The group remains cohesive. We have worked hard. We have managed to maintain a dressing room with a very good spirit. That is unique, and it is in these moments you see great teams. We will try to maintain this cohesion.”

Ignoring the shootout — as these numbers do — you can see how equally matched the two sides were, and why it took nine penalties to separate them. Here are what the 120 minutes looked like…

FT (aet): Portugal 0-0 France (France win 5-3 on pens)

• Possession: 60% — 40%
• Shots: 15 — 20
• On target: 4 — 5
• XG: 1.71 — 1.10
• Big chances: 4 — 2
• Blocked shots: 6 — 6
• Duels won: 44 — 47
• Dispossessed: 9 — 9

France may well have it in them to stifle Spain too — and if they do, it will be very hard to see them being picked off at any point during Euro 2024.

The one person unlikely to worry about France’s performance tonight is head coach Didier Deschamps. Here he is speaking at full-time to UEFA:

💬 “It was a very tense, tight match. It could have gone either way, even if we had a more laborious end to the match in extra time with less of the ball, there was fatigue too.

“It’s decided on small details, but I’m happy for the group that pushed themselves to the limit and swung it to the right side for us.”

Anyone tuning into the first half after the pulsating Germany vs Spain quarter-final was rapidly brought down to earth, as Portugal and France played out a largely underwhelming opening 45 minutes.

The teams’ combined expected goals total at half-time was 0.15, the lowest at any match at Euro 2024.

Thankfully, the second half opened up a little. But anyone who found all that a little bit exciting would have been mollified by extra time which — like the first half — was an elapsed period of time in which not very much happened.

A penalty shootout was the inevitable conclusion and France scored all five of theirs, while Joao Felix missed for Portugal.

Tim Spiers, Liam Tharme and Amy Lawrence break down the talking points from the game in Hamburg.

Another plus for Didier Deschamps will be the impact of Ousmane Dembele, who was named as the official player of the match — despite only coming on after 67 minutes.

He certainly looked the man mostly likely to break the deadlock in Hamburg, and may well come into serious consideration for a start once that date with Spain arrives in a few days’ time.

Of course, celebrations for making the semi-finals of a major tournament don’t tend to last for long — and attention will swiftly switch to the challenge of taking on Spain in Munich on Tuesday.

That gives Kylian Mbappe a few days to feel a bit better, as today it became clear that his broken nose isn’t make life easy for the Real Madrid striker. Especially when the ball smashes him in the face mid-game.

The France celebrations could just have easily been intense relief.

France had been eliminated each of the last four times they had gone to extra time at a major tournament, including the World Cup and European Championships.

That run dates back to them winning Euro 2000.

So all in all, that’s a huge night for France — however unconvincing it felt for long spells.

Here endeth Cristiano Ronaldo’s European Championship, then.

He was the second oldest player at Euro 2024 (behind his team-mate, Pepe).

He has extended his record of most European Championship games to 30.

Ronaldo was already the male player to have featured at the most Euro tournaments. This was his sixth.

But he also missed out on one, failing to become the oldest goalscorer in European Championship history — despite taking 23 shots at goal during Euro 2024.

At least Luka Modric knows his record, set in the group-stage draw with Italy at 38 years 289 days, is safe for a little while.

Not much France had not achieved under Didier Deschamps prior to tonight — barring winning the Euros — but they can add a penalty shoot-out win to that (having lost at Euro 2020 to Switzerland and in the 2022 World Cup final to Argentina).

Five convincing penalties too, especially Kounde’s top-corner one and young Barcola sending Diogo Costa the wrong way.

With no Mbappe, Giroud or Griezmann on the pitch, it was an impressive if makeshift display.

And with that, France reach the semi-finals of Euro 2024 despite failing to score from any of their 86 non-penalty shots in their five games so far.

At least they are defensively secure, I guess.

For Portugal, hugely emotional scenes with Pepe bursting into tears on the shoulder of Cristiano Ronaldo — whose own eyes are pretty red.

Two remarkable footballers, whose European Champions careers have in all likelihood just come to an end.

That was pretty dire from France but they get it done. Mbappe flies onto the pitch to kick off the celebrations and Didier Deschamps is beaming.

I’m not really sure how they’ve done it — still without scoring a goal for themselves in open play.

But they’re there, and that is all anyone will think about right now.

Theo Hernandez produces another superb penalty, into the top corner — and THAT SENDS FRANCE THROUGH!

They win the shootout 5-3. Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo are OUT.

• France: ✅✅✅✅✅
• Portugal: ✅✅❌✅ -

Mendes has to score, goes high and buries it. Fabulous stuff, 4-3 to France — but now Theo Hernandez can win it for France…

• France: ✅✅✅✅ -
• Portugal: ✅✅❌✅ -

Big penalty, over to the right of Maignan. France lead 4-2.

• France: ✅✅✅✅ -
• Portugal: ✅✅❌ - -

The first to miss, he goes low left and hits the front of the post. Advantage France…

• France: ✅✅✅ - -
• Portugal: ✅✅❌ - -

Kounde opts for top left. Another brilliant penalty. France lead 3-2.

• France: ✅✅✅ - -
• Portugal: ✅✅ - - -