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- France 2-0 Croatia (2-2 agg, 5-4 pens): Deschamps' men through after shoot-out drama
France 2-0 Croatia (2-2 agg, 5-4 pens): Deschamps' men through after shoot-out drama
France will meet Spain in the last four of the Nations League after a night of high drama against Croatia in the quarter-finals in Paris.
France progressed to the semi-finals of the Nations League thanks to a dramatic 5-4 penalty shoot-out victory over Croatia.
Trailing 2-0 from the first leg, second-half goals from Michael Olise and Ousmane Dembele saw Les Bleus fight back to level the last-eight tie at the Stade de France in Paris.
Having taken command of the shoot-out when Mike Maignan saved from Martin Baturina and Franjo Ivanovic ballooned over, France saw themselves pegged back when Jules Kounde also blasted over and Theo Hernandez fired high and wide.
But Josip Stanisic was also thwarted by Maignan, allowing Dayot Upamecano to shoot high into the goal and book Didier Deschamps' men a last-four date with Spain.
France sought to press the issue from the off and William Saliba headed over from Dembele's left-wing cross before Kylian Mbappe shot wide on the spin from eight yards.
Aurelien Tchouameni flicked a near-post header past the right post and Olise saw penalty shouts waved away by Michael Oliver after tussling with Duje Caleta-Car.
Olise then made the breakthrough with a terrific 20-yard free-kick into the top-right corner in the 52nd minute, before Tchouameni sent another header wide.
Mbappe swept wide after great work from Dembele but the latter made no such error when he brilliantly side-footed home Olise's centre with 10 minutes of normal time remaining to level the tie.
Desire Doue was kept out from range and Mbappe was denied one on one in extra time as penalties were required to settle the tie.
A back-and-forth shoot-out followed but ultimately it was Maignan who proved the hero, with the Milan goalkeeper keeping out Stanisic and Upamecano keeping his cool to finally send Les Bleus through.
Data Debrief: Shot-shy Croatia pay the price
Croatia were well in command of this tie after winning the first leg 2-0, but on this occasion they failed to muster a single shot on target.
That marked the first time they had ever failed to record a shot on target in the Nations League, and it could hardly have come at a worse time.
France, conversely, had 28 shots to their name, which represented the most they have managed in the 2024-25 Nations League.
Eight of those were attempted by captain and Real Madrid star Mbappe, the most by any France player in the Nations League.