This was a gruelling, gripping arm wrestle of a game, between two teams whose weight of celebrity lies at one end of the pitch, but whose strength of character lies at the other. It was won after 120 goalless minutes by France, who came through the shoot-out when João Félix hit the post and Theo Hernández converted the decisive kick. Incredibly, they advance to play Spain in Tuesday’s semi-final having played five matches in which they have neither conceded, nor has any French player scored, other than from the spot.
It is the apotheosis of a remorselessly nihilistic but undeniably successful approach to knockout football that France have perfected over the past several tournaments. They have a team of players who can raise this game to art; under Didier Deschamps, their métier is to grind it to dust. “I’m a head coach who is defensive, so my team plays on the defensive,” he admitted afterwards. During his playing career, Deschamps was known as the water carrier, and on his watch the champagne football remains in a locked cupboard, reserved only for the rarest and most special of occasions.
Arsène Wenger once said that, for him, football is “the art of flying together”. For Deschamps, it often feels like the art of suffering together. And yet, his team are in the semi-finals for the fourth time in five major tournaments. They are the most consistent force in international football. And here, they laid a curse to rest: France had not won a tournament game after extra time in Deschamps’ tenure; they lost on penalties in the 2022 World Cup final, and had not won a shoot-out since Deschamps was a player in 1998. Perhaps this will stand them in good stead.
For Portugal, this was the end of the road, and for their most famous player, the end of a journey in this tournament that began with a game against Greece in June 2004, when he was an 18-year-old quicksilver winger and not an immobile obelisk of a centre forward, raging against the dying of the light. Cristiano Ronaldo contributed little during the 120 minutes, though he did bury his penalty. Whether he will hang on for one last World Cup remains to be seen.
Much of the hype, the story-building before the game had been about Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappé: the man who was king once, and the man who may be his heir. In the event, this was just a crossing of paths, not a passing of the throne. Both men were incidental. They looked slow, and tired, and sore, pained by what weighs on them: for Mbappé, the mask he has been wearing since fracturing his nose in France’s first game; for Ronaldo, the knowledge that he is not capable of what he once was, that his team has carried him in this tournament.
Advertisement
For Mbappé in particular, it is a cruel irony. These international tournaments are the stages on which he has always been at his freest, his least encumbered, where he has no distractions swimming in his eyeline. This was a championship he wanted to leave a mark on. Instead it has left a mark on him. There was a moment in the second half when he took a ball to the face and went down. He removed his mask and clutched his nose. It is clear he is playing through considerable discomfort. “Kylian and Antoine [Griezmann] are not at the top of what they can do,” Deschamps admitted.
With the attacking stars subdued, it was a match in which the defenders shone. For France, William Saliba was again immense, and Mike Maignan, the goalkeeper, “monumental”, as Deschamps put it. Portugal’s ageless colossus Pepe, at 41 the oldest player to appear in a knockout match in a major tournament, was magnificent. In a deeply uneventful first half, he made a wonderful penalty-area tackle on Randal Kolo Muani, a duel that seemed to consist of several movements of channeled force, like a tango, and ended with him levering the ball out of the clinch, clean as a pearl.
The game came alive, a little, in the second half. Rafael Leão was the one forward whose runs and moves felt urgent: he surged thrillingly into the box and was foiled by a brilliant sliding challenge by Eduardo Camavinga. France brought duress upon themselves, and endured two good Portuguese chances: João Cancelo slipped a pass down the inside right channel, freeing Bruno Fernandes, who struck the shot low and hard; Maignan, flinging out his right hand, made a strong save. Leão created the next chance, bursting down the left and squaring the ball for Vitinha, but Maignan was there again, this time thwarting with his chest.
Stung into action, France strung together a lovely move. Kolo Muani passed to the advancing Jules Koundé, who artfully lifted the return pass over the head of a defender and into Kolo Muani’s path. His shot was the exact same, in silhouette and outcome, as the one he took in the final moments of the World Cup final: lifting himself off his feet as he struck the ball with his laces. Rúben Dias made a crucial block.
Both teams were refreshed by their substitutes, with Ousmane Dembélé, Marcus Thuram and Francisco Conceição all looking livelier than the players they replaced. Dembélé launched a 25-yard curler that brushed the frame of the goal, the closest we came to avoiding extra time.
Advertisement
Three minutes into extra time came the chance Ronaldo had been waiting for: Conceição jinked into the box and cut the ball back, just a little behind Ronaldo, who couldn’t keep it down from eight yards. Conceição did a little jump of frustration, then remembered who he was annoyed at, and tenderly patted Ronaldo’s face. Pepe, the old warhorse, made a critical block on Mbappé, and roared into the night.
At half-time in extra time, Mbappé was finally replaced by Bradley Barcola. Félix headed into the side netting. There was one last chance for Nuno Mendes, steered into Maignan’s gloves, before we proceeded to the nerve-shredding theatre of penalties. Dembélé, Youssouf Fofana and Koundé scored for France; Ronaldo and Bernardo Silva for Portugal.
Félix “said he wanted to stake his claim,” Roberto Martínez, the Portugal head coach, said. “It was a golden opportunity to show his worth. He was decisive, but sadly for the wrong reasons.” At the end, the French players streamed towards Hernández, feeling relief and release at last, after another show of resolute endurance.
Portugal (4-2-3-1): D Costa 6 — J Cancelo 6 (N Semedo 74min, 6), R Dias 7, Pepe 8, N Mendes 6 — Vitinha 6 (M Nunes 119), J Palhinha 7 (R Neves 92, 6) — B Silva 6, B Fernandes 6 (F Conceição 74, 7), R Leão 8 (J Félix 105) — C Ronaldo 5. Booked Palhinha.
France(4-3-3): M Maignan 8 — J Koundé 6, D Upamecano 7, W Saliba 8, T Hernández 7 — N Kanté 7, A Tchouaméni 6, E Camavinga 6 (Y Fofana 90, 6) — R Kolo Muani 6 (M Thuram 86, 6), A Griezmann 5 (O Dembélé 67, 7), K Mbappé 5 (B Barcola 105). Booked Saliba.
Referee M Oliver.
Attendance 47,789.
