The French and Portuguese National teams scaled over Belgium and Slovenia respectively, to reach the quarter finals of the ongoing EURO 2024 competition. The French needed a late own goal to dump Belgium while Portugal had to do it a much harder way, needing a penalty shootout to get rid of their opponents.
The France vs. Belgium match hardly lived up to its pre-match hype as the much talked about “golden generation” of Belgium created very little chance in 90 minutes. The only real chance the Red Devils mustered was a late free-kick off Manchester City midfielder Kevin DeBruyne which forced French goalkeeper Mike Maignan into a smart save with his legs.
France dominated most of the match coming close to scoring Thuram, Mbappe, Saliba and Real Madrid star, Tchouameni. The breakthrough finally came in a moment orchestrated by substitute Kolo Muani who saw his effort turned goalwards by Belgium defender Jan Vertonghen.
The late fixture between Portugal and Slovenia was more dramatic as captain Cristiano Ronaldo missed a chance to give his team the lead when he missed a penalty in extra time to send the fixture to penalty shootouts.
Portugal scored all three of their strikes through Ronaldo, Manchester United Midfielder Bruno Fernandes and City rival Bernando Silva. Portugal shot stopper, Diogo Costa, was the hero of the night as he became the first goalkeeper in EURO history to save 3 penalties in a match.
Speaking after the match, Costa said “This is probably the best game of my life, I focused on doing what I had to do. I went with my gut feeling. Of course we had analyzed the penalty takers, but players change how they shoot. I’m very happy and very excited to have helped the team.”
