France aims to silence criticism of Spain for Euro final spot

(Source: Reuters)

Goal-shy France will be looking to silence their critics when they face Spain in the Euro 2024 semi-finals in Munich on Tuesday, with their opponents hoping to continue their impressive campaign even without key players.

With Kylian Mbappe leading a talented team, France were widely among the favourites when they arrived in Germany.

But they were criticised by fans and pundits for a series of unimpressive performances and reached the last four without scoring a single goal from open play.

Despite reaching the finals of the last two World Cups, winning in Russia in 2018 and losing on penalties to Argentina in Qatar four years later, the team’s record under Didier Deschamps at the Euros is less impressive. In 12 years, its best result was a second-place finish in 2016 at home.

On Saturday, they only beat Portugal on penalties, with Mbappe being replaced after another game where he spent more time fiddling with his mask than serving his teammates.

Deschamps’ France often manage to be both dour and dramatic – defensively solid, they tend to waste attacking opportunities, and they survived against Portugal partly thanks to an equally wasteful Cristiano Ronaldo.

Mbappe’s fitness after breaking his nose in France’s first game and that of Antoine Griezmann remain big question marks ahead of the clash against Spain, who overcame a jubilant crowd at the Stuttgart Arena to beat the hosts with a goal in the dying minutes of extra time.

“Personally, I don’t care” about the criticism, midfielder Youssouf Fofana said at a news conference on Sunday.

“We are semi-finalists. Any questions about the level of Antoine and Kylian? You have to realize that it is enough to be in the semi-finals. So I don’t see why we would quibble.”

It remains to be seen whether that will be enough to overcome a very aggressive Spain, who are in imperial form with five consecutive victories so far at Euro 2024 but who will be without several key players in Munich.