Substitute Randal Kolo Muani's strike forced an own goal five minutes from time to give France a nervy but deserved 1-0 Euro 2024 round of 16 win over a disappointing Belgium on Monday.
France did most of the running in a cagey game but were reckless in their finishing until a lovely combination of passes, finished off by N'Golo Kanté, finally created space for Kolo Muani to clear his shot off the leg of Jan Vertonghen.
France will now face the winner of Monday's match between Portugal and Slovenia in the quarter-finals in Hamburg on Friday.
“We're enjoying this, we tried hard, we tried a lot but we didn't get it right,” said Kolo Muani after the match. “I was lucky.” [on the goal]”The coach had told me to bring energy… to create danger with my speed. I tried to bring some freshness to the game.”
It was an appropriately sloppy decider for a disappointing game and means France are yet to score from open play in the tournament, recording two own goals and a Kylian Mbappe penalty in their four games so far.
Unsurprisingly, France coach Didier Deschamps saw it differently: “It's beautiful. It was a tight game, but we enjoyed possession and had more chances.”
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“We've always had the ability to score more goals. It's been like that since the start of the Euros, but that doesn't mean we can't score. We don't want this to become a psychological barrier.”
Deschamps, who is aiming to become the first man to win the World Cup and European Championship as a player and a coach, knows better than most that what matters in tournaments is not how you play, but how far you go.
“We have done a lot of good things. We have to savour it, it is an important achievement. We are in the quarter-finals, they are going home. It is a good habit,” said Deschamps.
The match-up, between officially the second (France) and third (Belgium) best teams in the world, was lackluster: both limped into the knockout stages via unimpressive draws in the final group stages, managing just two goals each in their three games.
Belgium clearly had a plan to slow the game down, playing at less than a walking pace at times, with Kevin De Bruyne often operating just in front of their back four.
France's best chance of the first half came after 34 minutes, when Jules Koundé curled in a cross that saw striker Marcus Thuram head wide (and spend the next two minutes berating himself for it).
Aurélien Tchouaméni forced Koen Casteels into his first save of the day shortly after the break, while the ever-lively Mbappé squandered a clear-cut chance as France began to string together some passes.
A rare Belgian attack was halted by a brilliant tackle from Theo Hernandez just as Yannick Carrasco was about to pull the trigger, and Romelu Lukaku and De Bruyne then pulled off fine saves from Mike Maignan.
France's poor finishing continued with William Saliba and Mbappé shooting over before Kolo Muani scored late on to seal the win.
Information from Reuters was used in this story.
