Nervy France progress to Euro 2024 quarter-finals at the expense of Belgium as Jan Vertonghen’s late own goal separates the two nations after dire opening 85 minutes

In the end, Jan Vertonghen’s knee strike was decisive in a match that was approaching the death throes of tension. One small movement by the Dutch captain to confront the French striker, who had turned and shot, and suddenly Belgium’s campaign was over. That’s how desperate the dangers of the knockout stages are.

It was very hard for the smallest nation. They had worked their way toward a kind of self-confidence during a game whose territory was dominated by France. Few will suffer more despair afterwards than Kevin de Bruyne, faced with his country’s magnificent opportunity minutes before France’s advance. He fired a shot that would bury most days of the week in Manchester against French goalkeeper Mike Maignan.

With this victory, France has reached the quarterfinals thanks to two own goals and a penalty, none of them from off the field. But it was enough to see Didier Descamps harassing Mbappé to know that simply getting there was enough, after a night of tension.

‘Irresistible Francais’ reads the banner that has accompanied the French throughout the country, although far from it, searching for answers to free themselves from dependence on Mbappé. The man changed his mask here (smaller eye holes, thicker, more abundant fabric, some kind of mechanism to keep it on, in the back) and Deschamps organized the players in a system designed to get the best out of him in the field, but it was a tortuous search for openings.

The evidence of our eyes in recent years tells us that Mbappé kills at that dizzying pace, although the intricate, absorbed and sometimes maddening aesthetics of France did not allow it.

They had their moments in the first half: a thunderous run by Jules Kounde to meet Aurelien Tchouameni’s 40-foot diagonal and deliver a cross from which Marcus Thurum, ahead of Woet Faes, headed wide; Antoine Griezmann entered from the right and sometimes moved the controls. Aurelien Tchouameni dictated the game from the back.

But Thurum was not dynamic and there was very little end result to show for it in a tight game bogged down by the Belgian defensive mechanism. Mbappe found himself running into a wall of Maroons. The Belgian fans chanted ‘please don’t take me home’, in their memorable fashion, but there was little to hold them back here.

It seemed a symbol of Belgium’s decline that they sat so far back, offering little ambition, although the presence of Manchester City’s Jeremy Doku – their shining light in the first half – made them dare to do more.

Doku won the free kick on the left edge of the area that created the Belgians’ best chance of the first half: a low, diving free kick from De Bruyne that Maignan, seemingly without vision, was quick to clear virtually from the line. goal when it came. But France generally managed to make the transition and the Belgians had their forwards so far back that there were no offensive forces to release.

France upped the tempo early in the second half, with Tchouameni increasingly willing to take shots from distance and Mbappe finding his way twice. He beat De Bruyne on the edge of the area and fired home from close range. He shot poorly when Kounde, effective on the right, found him in space.

And then there was the shot that left the Belgians walking around the pitch wondering what had happened to them and Vertonghen staring into space. Striker Randal Kolo Muani, coming on for Thuram, turned to get around the centre-back and shot, but the ball was deflected wide. France’s struggles to score suggest there is little reason to fear them, even though they are through, with Mbappe in their ranks. That makes them a threat to anyone.