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France eliminate Portugal for EURO semi spot

France defeated Portugal on penalties to secure their spot in the 2024 European Championship semi-finals on Friday evening.

The French restored Eduardo Camavinga in place of Adrien Rabiot while Randal Kolo Muani returned for Marcus Thuram, whilst the A Selecao remained unchanged after the penalty shoot-out win over Slovenia. 

Les Bleus enjoyed a bright start through a portion of forward ventures involving Antoine Griezmann, Aurelien Tchouameni and skipper Kylian Mbappe.  

Although, the Portuguese weren't troubled but continued to hold a tight line and looked to inspirational veteran captain and star player Cristiano Ronaldo to make things happen.  

Nothing really changed in so far as matters opening up let alone scoring chances, with the contest remaining tight all round.  

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A Selecao were eager to change all that and livened it up through a penetrative run involving none other than Vitinha, but Tchouameni showed quick recovery and made a crucial intervention.  

The Portuguese once again pushed up in the hunt to a breakthrough, but Tchouameni again stood in their way and denied Rafael Leao a clear entry on this occasion.  

Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes came extremely close to the opener later on when he collected a lay-off from Cancelo to apply a first-time shot only to be courted by Mike Maignan. 

France hauled in the maiden alteration of the clash midway through the contest, as Griezmann came on for Ousmane Dembele.  

It didn't take Dembele to settle but he stuck in instantly where he picked a clever pass to Camavinga to get in a clear opening, but the Real Madrid man dragged disappointingly wide.  

Ronaldo, who had been quiet, looked to liven up the crowd through a close-range free-kick but fired off the wall and off to extra-time.  

Portugal were closest to the breakthrough in the second period of extra-time from the head of Joao Felix following a Francisco Conceicao's ball, but he hit the side-netting.  

With no winner decided in almost three hours of action, a penalty shoot-out came and a successful execution of the opening spot-kicks followed suit with Ronaldo first up for the Portuguese.  

However, Felix weren't so fortunate but had his one parried as Diogo Costa couldn't replicate the spot-kick heroics for the second game running as Les Bleus dispatched all five kicks to advance to the semi-finals.

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