France advances after penalty kick – Pepe in tears – Sydsvenskan

For the second consecutive UEFA Europa League match, Portugal had to go to a penalty shootout, but unlike their last-16 elimination against Slovenia, they lost to France in the quarter-finals.

The biggest misfortune was 24-year-old Joao Felix, who hit the post with a penalty kick and Portugal was eliminated.

This quarter-final was between two powerhouses in France’s Kylian Mbappe and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, each team boasting superstars, and the Hamburg crowd was treated to an extremely cautious start, with neither team seeming to want to take any risks.

With just over an hour played, the game started to pick up steam. Portugal then seemed to kick into a higher gear, creating three dangerous chances in a matter of minutes.

First, French goalkeeper Mike Menion was forced into a brilliant one-handed save after Bruno Fernandes had a chance. In the next, Joao Cancelo had a chance but shot wide. The next chance came a few minutes later when Vitinha burned a good position.

France responded with a Randal Kolo Muani situation that forced Portugal goalkeeper Diogo Costa to intervene to keep the game goalless. Eduardo Camavinga was the next Frenchman to have a chance, but his shot from close range went just wide of the target.

However, despite numerous chances, there were no goals and the game went into extra time, which ended in a goalless draw – a penalty shootout too.

After Theo Hernandez scored the final penalty shootout goal to send the ‘Gauls’ through to the championship, 41-year-old Pepe cried and Cristiano Ronaldo comforted him by hugging his compatriot.

“We have to go through this moment of defeat and it’s very painful,” Pepe said afterwards.

France will face Spain in the semi-final on Tuesday.