Two teams, touted as favourites to win the Euros before the start of the competition faced off against each other in the Round of 16. France and Belgium, both up until that point in the competition had two very ordinary campaigns. With both European Giants underperforming massively with regards to the kind of talent they have, it was to be seen who would make it to the Quarterfinals.
At the end of what was a snoozefest in their first knockout match, it was France who managed to get the win courtesy of yet another own goal. For teams ranked 2nd and 3rd in the world the game’s quality from either sure didn’t feel like it. Much like their group stage appearances, both France and Belgium were unimpressive for the majority part of the 90 minutes in Dusseldorf.
After coming 2nd in both their Groups, both teams had lots of questions looming over their head. Were they really good enough to go all the way? Was their “favourites” tag justified? And it can be said that none of these questions were answered throughout the match.
France haven’t scored a single goal from open play
From their first four matches in the tournament, Les Blues has still not scored a single goal from open play. They won their opening game against eventual Group D winners Austria, thanks to an own goal by Maximilian Wober in the 38th minute. France drew a blank against the Dutch almost losing the game at one point, but managing to hold on to a 0-0 draw. In their final group game against Poland, Kylian Mbappe opened the scoring for France from the penalty spot. But Poland equalised in the end courtesy of another penalty from Robert Lewandowski. Now, with Jan Vertoghen’s own goal off Kolo Muani’s deflected shot in the 85th minute of the Round of 16 matchup against Belgium, France has made it to the Quarterfinals of the Euros without scoring a single goal from open play.
But is that a concern for France? Not really. Even though France has been poor in converting the chances that they get in front of the goal, they haven’t been bad in creating those chances. In fact from a tournament perspective, they are amongst the top 3 teams in every other metric except goalscoring. Most touches in the opponent’s box, most shots per 90, highest xG per 90, highest xA per 90, highest number of big chances missed, etc. It’s just a matter of the floodgates opening for the highly skilled French attacking line, which consists of talents like Antoine Greizmann, Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, Kolo Muani, Marcus Thuram, etc.
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