France break penalty-kick duck as Portugal crash out | OneFootball

France have broken their penalty duck as they advanced to the semi-finals of Euro 2024, at the expense of Portugal.

Prior to Friday night, Les Bleus had not won a penalty shootout in a major tournament since beating Italy in the World Cup in 1998. Ousmane Dembélé, Youssouf Fofana, Jules Koundé, Bradley Barcola and Théo Hernandez all slotted their spot-kicks past Diogo Costa, after the game had ended 0-0. The FC Porto had been the hero in the last round, saving all three penalties as Portugal edged past Slovenia on penalties.

France become first team to advance to Euros semi-finals without goal from open play

Whilst France may have broken an unwanted record, they did set another. Les Bleus have become the first team to advance to the semi-finals of a European Championships without scoring a single goal from open play. So far, France have profited from two own goals (Max Wöber and Jan Verthongen) and one penalty from captain Kylian Mbappé, who wasn’t even on the pitch for Friday night’s shootout against Portugal.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle