It was the most anticipated and perhaps difficult to predict round of 16 of Euro 2024, in the end it was France who smiled who took advantage of an own goal by Vertonghen (in an attempt to stop a shot from Kolo Muani in front of goal) and beats Belgium 1-0ousting the Red Devils and taking the stride to the quarter-finals. A tense, intense and unexciting match is resolved in the final with a single episode that condemns the Belgians.
Coach Deschamps he spoke as follows: “Kolo Muani has often done important things in the past, he is a player I care about a lot because he has great qualities and I am happy for him. We played a high-level match, responding well on the pitch: in the ninety minutes we did something more than Belgium, the only real regret I can have comes from the many missed opportunities, with many balls that ended up in the stands. Access to the quarter-finals is an important result for us, even if we are used to reaching this goal: there is always great expectation on France, but the level in this European Championship is very high”.
Its Belgian counterpart German he took the disappointment in stride: “We were eliminated for conceding a goal in the 86th minute, it’s difficult to give a general judgment and make an analysis now on what our European Championship was. We’ll analyze everything that happened and then we’ll see in the coming weeks. For me it’s always difficult to talk about incidents, you have to accept the decisions on the pitch: it would be too easy to always blame the referee or the VAR. With Romania and Slovakia we kept up the pressure, with Ukraine the same even if in this case the players knew that with a goal they would have been eliminated. Thinking that Lukaku will go home without a goal is a shame”.