Germany crashes out of Euro at home, France beats Portugal on penalties. How the first quarter-final matches of Euro went

The Spanish and French national teams have become the first semi-finalists of the 2024 European Football Championship, which is being held in Germany. This was reported by a Lenta.ru correspondent.

The Spanish defeated the tournament hosts Germany in overtime, while the French were stronger than the Portuguese in a penalty shootout. As a result, Spain and France will play each other in the semi-finals, which will take place on July 9 and will begin at 22:00 Moscow time.

Germany crashed out of tournament after losing to Spain in late overtime

The German national team played the first half of the quarterfinal match against Spain more actively. The Germans had more possession of the ball and threatened the opponent’s goal more often, but there were no truly dangerous moments. This happened in the 51st minute, and immediately ended with a goal. The midfielder of the Spanish national team Dani Olmo, after a cross from the flank by Lamin Yamal, accurately shot into the corner from the penalty area.

The Germans managed to equalize at the end of regulation time. Substitute Florian Wirtz took advantage of a pass from Joshua Kimmich and scored from close range. The game went into extra time, and a scandalous episode occurred in the first overtime. The ball, which was flying towards the Spanish goal, hit the outstretched hand of defender Marc Cucurella. The referee of the match Anthony Taylor did not award a penalty. Former referee of the Russian Premier League Igor Fedotov disagreed with him in an interview with Championat.

The match was heading to a penalty shootout, but at the end of the second overtime, the Spaniards scored the decisive goal. Olmo’s pass was answered by Mikel Merino, who also appeared on the pitch during the match. He scored a header and put Spain into the semi-finals. The match was the last in the career of Germany midfielder Toni Kroos, who announced that he would retire from football after the Euro. In total, he played 919 matches at the professional level and won 35 trophies.

France beat Portugal in penalty shootout

In the first half of the match between France and Portugal, fans did not see any dangerous moments. The second half was much more eventful: the French goalkeeper Mick Maignan saved the team more than once, and his partners shot past the Portuguese goal several times from good positions. In the end, no one managed to open the scoring, and the match went into extra time.

In the first overtime, the teams also did not score any goals, and during the break between the two extra halves, the leader of the French national team, Kylian Mbappe, asked to be replaced. In one of the episodes in the second half, the ball hit him in the face, after which doctors provided assistance to the player for a long time. In the absence of the forward, no one scored any goals either, and everything was decided in a penalty shootout.

Portugal goalkeeper Diogo Costa failed to pull off a second miracle in a row and missed all five penalty shots. Cristiano Ronaldo converted his attempt for the Portuguese, and the only and decisive miss was Joao Felix’s shot on the post. The French won the series with a score of 5:3 and advanced to the semi-finals.

Two players disqualified at Euro for offensive gestures

The decision was made by the disciplinary committee of the Union of European Football Associations. Turkey’s Merih Demiral was disqualified for two matches for making a gesture associated with Turkish ultra-nationalists in the 1/8 finals. He will miss the quarter-final against the Netherlands and, if he advances to the next stage, the Euro semi-finals.

England footballer Jude Bellingham has been given a one-match suspended ban. The decision does not come into effect immediately and is subject to a one-year probationary period. The player was punished for making an obscene gesture during the round of 16 match against Slovakia, when he grabbed his groin area and addressed the Slovak players.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was outraged by Demiral’s disqualification. He pointed to other national teams whose symbols, in his opinion, contain controversial symbols.

Turkey is the lowest-ranked team in the FIFA rankings among those that have reached the quarter-finals of this year’s Euro. Vincenzo Montella’s team is in 42nd place.