France struggled against Portugal for a long time. The decision was only made in the penalty shootout. The next opponent was Germany’s conqueror Spain. The European Championship career ended for a superstar.
At the end of his European Championship career, Cristiano Ronaldo himself was called upon to console him. After losing the penalty shootout against France, the 39-year-old hugged the crying Pepe. Instead of Ronaldo’s Portuguese team, the French team, led by top striker Kylian Mbappé, reached the semi-finals of the European Football Championship shortly before midnight and will face Germany’s conquerors Spain.
In the duel of superstars, the French won 5:3 on penalties after 120 goalless minutes in Hamburg. The European Championship record player and record goalscorer Ronaldo had already announced before this game that he would not be taking part in the next European Championship in 2028 in Great Britain and Ireland.
While Ronaldo did his job from the penalty spot in a nerve-wracking duel, João Félix only hit the post. The French, on the other hand, converted all attempts with ice-cold precision. “I’m really happy. It wasn’t easy. We played against a great team. We didn’t tremble during the penalty shootout,” said France goalkeeper Mike Maignan.
The Équipe Tricolore, led by its leader Mbappé, can therefore continue to hope for its third European Championship title after 1984 and 2000. In the semi-final on Tuesday (9 p.m.) in Munich, they will face the Spanish, who had previously defeated hosts Germany 2-1 after extra time.
In front of 47,789 spectators at the last European Championship match in the Volksparkstadion, the Portuguese gained a slight advantage in the early stages. Much of the action was played on the left side by the strong dribbler Rafael Leão. Ronaldo, however, was left out of the game. His French counterpart Mbappé was constantly being sought out by his teammates. The 25-year-old future Real Madrid professional mostly acted more as a ball distributor. The ex-Frankfurt player Randal Kolo Muani played alongside him in the striker position.
Both defensive lines dominated most of the time. Théo Hernández was the first to test Portugal’s goalkeeper Diogo Costa from 18 metres (20th minute). Shortly afterwards, the hero of Portugal’s penalty shoot-out in the round of 16 against Slovenia was called upon to deal with a cross from Mbappé (22nd minute). Rafael Leão only posed a major challenge to France’s goalkeeper Mike Maignan once with a shot at the near post (30th minute).
After the break, the game finally picked up speed. There was a moment of shock for the French: after a header from Portugal’s Bernardo Silva, captain Mbappé remained lying on the ground (54th minute). The ball flew directly onto the side of his face mask, which he wears because of his broken nose.
After an hour, things got spectacular in both penalty areas: first, Portugal’s Bruno Fernandes was thwarted by Maignan (61′), and two minutes later, Maignan was on hand to stop Vitinha. On the other side, defender Rúben Dias prevented his team from going behind through Kolo Muani with a sliding tackle (66′). A little later, Eduardo Camavinga missed from close range in front of Portugal’s goal (70′). The substitution of Ousmane Dembélé for Antoine Griezmann brought life into the French game, at least for a short time.
Neither team was able to force a decision. So, like the first quarter-final of the day, the game went into extra time. And in the third minute, Ronaldo had a great chance to take the lead, but he smashed the ball well over the goal from close range.
The Portuguese continued to try, but the clear finish was missing. France relied on counterattacks, including the speedy Dembélé. When things got dangerous for the Portuguese, the 41-year-old Pepe cleared everything away. Mbappé stayed out for the second half of extra time. The star player treated his face with a blue ice pack on the bench, but then celebrated wildly after his teammates had sorted things out in the penalty shootout without him.
Source: Stern
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