(Football news) La Roja, who have an unbeaten record thus far, advanced to Munich by defeating their hosts in the previous round; Les Bleus, on the other hand, advanced to the final four after defeating Portugal in a tight penalty shootout.
The first quarterfinal of Euro 2024, which pitted possibly the two best teams in the competition, promised a lot and ultimately delivered as Spain scored in extra time to win 2-1 in Stuttgart.
Germany equalized with Florian Wirtz after Dani Olmo, who had replaced the injured Pedri, had put La Roja ahead. However, just as the evenly matched match seemed headed toward penalty kicks, Mikel Merino scored a header to guarantee his team’s participation in the semifinals.
A formidable force under Luis de la Fuente, Spain are the only team to have won all five matches thus far, and no nation in European Championship history has won six times in a single finals, or even posted six wins in a row.
Much credit has been handed to the former Under-21 boss, who instigated a tactical change upon taking over from Luis Enrique and is now reaping the rewards: his Spain side have recorded lower possession than their opponents twice this summer (48% vs Germany, 47% vs Croatia), which is more times than across 44 major-tournament matches between the 2006 and 2022 World Cups.
A more diverse approach, featuring quick passing and pace out wide, has proved mightily successful, as since the start of 2023, La Roja have the best win percentage of any European nation, winning 15 of their 19 games under De la Fuente.
Victory in the most recent UEFA Nations League bred faith in the direction of travel, and they are on their best winning run since the glory days of June 2010.
Spain have progressed from four of five European Championship semi-finals to date – though they lost on penalties to eventual winners Italy at this stage three years ago – and will now fight for the right to meet either England or the Netherlands on Sunday.
That would be the Iberian nation’s fifth continental final, and the first since their brief but brilliant reign of dominance was wrapped up with victory at Euro 2012.
Meanwhile, France are aiming to reach a fourth European Championship decider, but only the second played away from French soil.
Didier Deschamps presided over the most recent one – 2016’s defeat to Portugal in Paris – and the double World Cup winner is intent on going one better this time around.
Since being beaten in the last World Cup final, his talented team have started to stutter, and their progress to the semi-finals has been far less fluent than that of Spain, who swept past Croatia, Italy, Albania and Georgia before toppling the tournament hosts.
Having lost out to Austria for top spot in Group D, France were uninspired in their last-16 win over Belgium before edging past Portugal in the quarter-finals.
Goalkeeper Mike Maignan was called upon to make a couple of crucial saves to take the tie into extra time, and it ultimately came down to penalties in Hamburg, where Theo Hernandez hammered home the decisive kick from 12 yards.
Concern over the form and fitness of captain Kylian Mbappe were raised again, as Real Madrid’s newest ‘galactico’ was forced off ahead of the shootout, but Les Bleus once more found a way to get the job done.
With a masked Mbappe misfiring, there have only been four goals scored in their five Euro 2024 matches so far – three for and just one against – and all by way of either penalties or own goals.
The only team on record to have more than 50 non-penalty shots at a European finals and fail to find the net with any, France may not be as aesthetically pleasing as their Spanish counterparts – who they beat 2-1 in their most recent meeting, the 2021 Nations League final – but very few would bet against them.
Also read: France will play Spain in the semifinals and here’s the predicted 11
