89 min: The goal is being attributed to Vertonghen, who’ll be delighted, no doubt. It was N’Golo Kante who slipped the ball to Muani, whose mis-kick could see France into the quarter-finals. I won’t lie – even though I drew Belgium in the pub sweepstake and there’s over £100 up for grabs, I’ll be mightily fed up if they get an equaliser. That’s how dire this game has been.
Updated at 18.48 BST
81 min: “If this is level at 90 minutes, can we organise some kind of emergency diktat to stop it going to extra time,” asks Harry Smart. “I don’t personally care if they go straight to penalties or settle it with a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, but I can’t take any more of this.”
Updated at 18.39 BST
75 min: “You have a great job getting paid to watch the Euros,” writes Debra. “Is the game so dire? Or are you just a miserabilist? Or a fan of England?”
I’m just calling it as I see it, Debs. And as an Irishman I can assure you the scars of last night’s trauma inflicted upon me by Jude Bellingham will never heal.
Updated at 18.34 BST
53 min: The second half has very much picked up where the first left off, with France in the ascendency but in dire need of some cutting edge. A case in point: Mbappe darts along the edge of the penalty area, cutting in from the left and then fires high over the bar. He’d given Kevin de Bruyne the slip, with the Belgium skipper unable to risk fouling him for fear of giving away a penalty.
Updated at 18.12 BST
49 min: Aurelien Tchouameni tries his luck from distance and his shot takes a nick off a defender. Koen Casteels gets down low to his left to bat it out for a corner. France subsequently win a free-kick, wide on the left. The ball’s sent in to the mixer, half-cleared and the ball drops nicely for Kounde. His floated delivery into the box is good and Thuram heads over from seven or eight yards. Not good enough, Marcus.
Updated at 18.10 BST
46 min: “I’m not surprised that neither manager has made any changes at all because bizarrely, they’ll both be happy with how that first half went,” says Coisty on ITV co-comms. “It’ll be interesting to see which coach makes a change to actually try to go and win the game, rather than not lose it.”
Wise words, spoken in a lovely Scottish burr.
Updated at 18.04 BST
An email: “This is a typical Euro 2024 game: utterly pedestrian,” writes Kev McReady. “Incidentally, isn’t it funny the best player at this tournament is Kante? Like a Transit van winning a Grand Prix.”
While I wouldn’t necessarily agree that it’s typical of the tournament, many of the supposedly great teams have been dire. There have been plenty of terrific games in this tournament, many of them featuring Georgia.
Updated at 17.52 BST
#France #Belgium #Euro #live #Euro,
#France #Belgium #Euro #live #Euro