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France overcame Belgium after Randal Kolo Muani’s effort was diverted into the net by Jan Vertonghen as Les Bleus progressed into the quarter-finals of the Euro 2024 Championship on Monday.
The 85th minute goal means no France player has scored from open play since the start of the tournament over two weeks ago.
Didier Deschamps’ side at this year’s Euro possesses attackers like captain Kylian Mbappe, Marcus Thuram, Olivier Giroud, Kolo Muani, Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele, Bradley Barcola, and Kingsley Coman.
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However, the French haven’t been able to transform any of their attacking blessedness into a goalscoring side.
The same can be said of the Belgium throughout the four matches they played before their elimination. The Red Devils scored in only one of their four matches – a 2-0 second group game win over Romania.
Belgium lost their opening match 1-0 to Slovakia and played a goalless draw against Ukraine in the final group outing.
We present you some of the finest stats (as recorded by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics) from the round of 16 clash between France and Belgium which ended 1-0 in favour of the 2018 World Cup winners.
France 1-0 Belgium stats
– In probably his last game for Belgium, Jan Vertonghen (capped 157 times, more than any other player in Belgium’s history), committed his only own goal in his international career.
– Vertonghen (aged 37 years 68 days) became the oldest player to score an own goal at the Euros. He is the first-ever Belgian to do it at the tournament.
– France’s both victories in this Euro have been achieved thanks to own goals (also in the game 1-0 vs Austria from Wöber). Strangely, their unique victory at the previous edition (2020) was as well 1-0 (vs Germany) with an own goal (Hummels). France’s last victory in the Euro with their proper goals was against Germany in 2016: 2-0 with goals from Griezmann.
– France have benefited from their 5th own goal at the Euros, more than any other team. Les Bleus are also the team whose opponents have scored the most such goals at the World Cups (6).
– France’s proper players are yet to score from open play at Euro 2024 despite having already 47 shots.
– There are 10 own goals already at Euro 2024; the same number as at the whole Euro 2020. The previous 15 Euro editions have seen only 12 own goals combined.
– France have won all 5 of their games against Belgium in major tournaments (World Cups, Euros), including:
3-1 at World Cup 1938 (playing at home),
5-0 at Euro 1984 (also playing at home),
4-2 at 1986 World Cup (match for third place),
1-0 at 2018 World Cup (semifinals).
– Belgium have not beaten France in any competitive match since 1981 (2-0 at home in the 1982 World Cup qualifier).
– N’Golo Kanté (France) has now played most Euro games (12) without losing in the competition’s history; he surpassed Xavi’s record (11).
– Kanté now has the longest unbeaten run by any European player in major tournament history (World Cups, Euros) – 19 games (13 wins, 6 draws).
Tags: Randal Kolo Muani, Jan Vertonghen, Kylian Mbappe, Belgium, France, Didier Deschamps, #Euro2024, #nrtcnews, #nrtcnewsnigeria, #NewsRoundTheClock, #nrtcsports
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