France advances to the Euro 2024 semi-finals without scoring a single goal in open play

On Friday, France advanced to the Euro 2024 semi-finals with a penalty shootout victory over Portugal. But the victory also came with an unusual historic milestone: with the victory, France became the first team in Euro history to reach the semi-final without a goal scored from open play.

In five games so far in the tournament, all of France’s goals have come from own goals and penalties. Les Bleus have also had two goalless games, with a 0-0 draw against the Netherlands in the group stage and a 0-0 win over Portugal on Friday.

In a Euro where the own goal is to make a generational tournament, France also benefited from own goals. An own goal in the group stage gave Les Bleus three crucial points in a 1-0 win over Austria, while another against Belgium allowed France to progress to the quarter-finals with a 1-0 win. against were scored in the tournament – ​​an unprecedented number.

France, however, also did not concede a goal in open play. The only goal allowed by Les Bleus so far was a penalty from Polish captain Robert Lewandowski in a group stage game against Poland. Lewandowski’s penalty equaled France’s only goal without an own goal so far this tournament, a penalty from captain Kylian Mbappe. With the draw at 1-1, France narrowly overcame the Netherlands and advanced to the knockout stage.

It is difficult to see France as the second team in the world based on current data. FIFA Ratings, struggles to score. The problem, however, does not appear to be shooting: France have outscored all of their opponents so far, accumulating 87 shots in five games, with 20 shots on target.

For now, France has resisted despite problems putting the ball in the net, but it won’t be so easy in attack. The French will now face Spain in the semi-finals on Tuesday – a team who have had no trouble scoring, with 11 goals in five games. All but one, an Italian own goal, came from open play.