France are through to the semi-finals of Euro 2024 after overcoming Portugal on penalties. Check out the best facts, stats and analyse the Opta data with our Portugal vs France stats page.
France are through to the semi-finals of Euro 2024 after beating Portugal 5-3 on penalties following a turgid 120 minutes of nothingness in Hamburg. They progress to the last four having still not scored a goal from any of their 86 non-penalty shots at the tournament. Such is football.
From minute one it looked as though both sides were happy to play for penalties, with both Didier Deschamps and Roberto Martínez unsurprisingly opting for pragmatism over anything more expansive. It was a very different game to the one we’d witnessed a few hours earlier as Spain beat Germany 2-1 in an end-to-end thriller.
The first half passed without incident. Quite literally.
Portugal were perhaps more progressive in the opening exchanges than you’d think for a side that had failed to score in their last two games. They shuttled the ball out to their left at every opportunity, and with Rafael Leão and Nuno Mendes prowling out there you could understand why. The pair looked like Portugal’s best way to hurt France, particularly with Leão taking on Jules Koundé.
For France, N’Golo Kanté flitted around in midfield, grin on his face. Kylian Mbappé had a few moments where he showcased his terrifying speed in behind. Théo Hernández cracked a shot from outside the box that stung the palms of Diogo Costa. William Saliba had more than one cooler-than-cool defensive moment.
But that’s us being kind. It really was a half to forget and one that produced the lowest first-half expected goals total of the entire tournament to date (0.15).
Perhaps the most noteworthy moment was Cristiano Ronaldo not taking a free-kick for once. Instead, the honour of blazing one over the bar was bestowed on Bruno Fernandes. Something about clutching and straws.
It took precisely four minutes for the second half to provide more entertainment that the first. Mbappé played a sharp one-two with Kanté on the edge of the box and fizzed a first-time shot straight at Costa.
Portugal carved out the best chance of the night on the hour-mark. Finally, a midfielder showed some endeavour to run beyond his forwards, with Fernandes charging onto a delightful João Cancelo through ball. His low, powerful shot across goal was well saved by Mike Maignan. That combination would make Martínez’ decision to substitute both Fernandes and Cancelo after 75 minutes all the more baffling.
Then it was France’s turn to show some forward thrust. This time it was Koundé making an adventurous run and he set up Randal Kolo Muani to scuff his shot wide. There were more shots in a seven-minute window after 60 minutes (seven) than there were in the entire first half (five).
Ousmane Dembélé came on for the disappointing Antoine Griezmann and made a real impact on the right for France, showing a desire to take players on that was frankly at odds with how everyone else on the pitch was playing. Dembélé created more chances (6) than any other player on the pitch, despite coming on in the 67th minute.
But even he couldn’t break open a game that was destiny-bound to go to extra-time. After 90 minutes, France still had not scored from a single one of their 81 non-penalty shots, a figure that would rise to 86 before we were done. Portugal had gone three games without scoring for the first time in their major tournament history. Did we even need to bother with extra-time?
No, not really. To penalties then. Portugal had the historical advantage going into them, winning four of their five in major tournaments. The French had lost each of their last three (including two in World Cup finals).
In the end it was João Félix’s penalty miss that would be decisive, with him the only player to miss out of the nine that were taken. Portuguese goalkeeper Costa was unable to replicate his heroics from the last-16 tie against Slovenia, but the French takers did not give him a chance.
Les Bleus are now through to play Spain in the semi-finals. Luis de la Fuente’s team would have chuckled to themselves watching this game… neither of these two sides would have scared them at all.
The question ahead of this tie – and one that we mused on these very pages – was whether Cristiano Ronaldo would start up front for Portugal. Well to be specific, we were confident he would start, but the more pertinent question was should he start?
The Portugal great had three shots but blazed his best one of the night over the bar in extra-time. He looked disconnected from the rest of the team, completing just four of his six attempted passes in the final third. Having scored 10 goals in nine major tournament games between 2018 and 2022, Ronaldo has now failed to score in any of his last nine appearances at the World Cup/Euros.
Has he just played his last such game for Portugal? Time will tell.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Portugal vs France stats from their Euro 2024 quarter-final clash in Hamburg.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.
Portugal vs France: Post-Match Facts
- France will play in their sixth UEFA European Championship semi-final, with only Germany (8) ever contesting more.
- France have now reached at least the semi-final in four of the last five major tournaments (World Cup/EUROs), failing only at Euro 2020 (round of 16). This is at least twice as many semi-finals as any other European nation since Euro 2016 (Croatia, England, Spain all 2).
- Having only been eliminated from two of their first eight major tournament quarter-finals (World Cup/Euros), Portugal have since been knocked out at this round in both the 2022 World Cup and Euro 2024.
- Excluding penalties and own goals, France are yet to score in their five games at Euro 2024. No side has ever gone longer without such a goal in the tournament’s history, with Les Bleus attempting 86 non-penalty shots (7.25 non-pen xG) without scoring from one at this year’s finals.
- Portugal have gone three games without scoring a goal for the first time since a run of four from December 1996 to March 1997.
- There were 35 shots in this match between Portugal (15) and France (20), the most in a game that finished 0-0 at the UEFA European Championship since England v Italy in their 2012 quarter-final (45).
- Four of the five UEFA European Championship meetings between France and Portugal have gone to extra-time – the only fixture in the tournament’s history to go beyond the regular 90 minutes more than twice.
- This was only the second Euros game on record (from 1980) not to see a single shot from inside either box in the first half – the other was also France v Portugal in the 1984 semi-final.
- 67th-minute substitute Ousmane Dembélé created more chances (6) than any other player in this match. The only other player to create as many after coming on from the bench in a EUROs game on record (since 1980) was Cesc Fàbregas for Spain v Russia in 2008 (also 6).
Enjoy this? Subscribe to our football newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You should also follow our social accounts over on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.