The journey of France in the 2024 European Championship has ended as Lamine Yamal of Spain made history in the tournament.
France have been heavily criticized for their “boring” approach to their games in the European Championship. Recall that they went into the semi-finals without scoring any goal in the previous stages of the tournament via open play.
Unfortunately for them, they had to contend with Spain who have been the surprised package so far at the tournament. Recall that they finished the group stage campaign without dropping any points with their entertaining and possession-based brand of football.
During the semi-finals clash between the two giants at the Allianz Arena on July 9, France stunned their critics by scoring their first open-play goal of the tournament via Randal Kolo Muani’s strike in the 9th minute.
Coach Didier Deschamps’ boys didn’t enjoy the lead for too long before Lamine Yamal stepped up to make history. He scored a thunderous goal outside the eighteen-yard box to gift Spain the needed equalizer in the 21st minute.
The goal made the FC Barcelona forward, Yamal, the youngest player to score a goal in the European Championship. He achieved the feat at 16 years and 362 days old.
26-year-old RB Leipzig forward, Dani Olmo made it 2-1 four minutes after as Spain went into the break with a comeback lead.
In the second half, France had the best chances but couldn’t convert them. One of the best chances of the half fell to Kylian Mbappe who played the game without a mask.
The 25-year-old new Real Madrid forward had the option of passing the ball to substitute, Olivier Giroud in the penalty box, but he decided to go alone. He ended up firing the ball over the bar from a relatively close range.
At the end of the 90 minutes of a balanced encounter, Spain scaled through to the final where they will take on the Netherlands or England at 8 p.m. on Sunday, July 14.
