Antoine Griezmann exorcises demons with crucial penalty against Germany

Yet, the diminutive striker was never France’s No.1 choice before the European Championships.

Bwin: France wins – 2.05.

France rarely had the ball and spent most of the match resisting sustained pressure from the world champions but Griezmann still did what he does best: playing with the energy and enthusiasm of a little boy in a school match. “Germany made two mistakes on the goals but he put them in the back of the net”.

In the match that saw him crowned the most-capped European player at major global tournaments, Bastian Schweinsteiger denied Patrick Evra the chance to head at goal with his arm from close-range after Griezmann’s corner. Two years later the French were again the first in Europe.

Germany desperately pushed forward. “I can’t blame any player for that”, Low added. “And that’s why I’m proud of my team-mates”. There should be nothing above the French shirt for the players; perhaps that’s not always been the case but they’re now very aware of what they can give to people when they’re wearing this shirt for.

Deschamps persevered with mild-mannered goalkeeper Hugo Lloris as captain, despite his apparent lack of vocal leadership. He said: “I had another chance to take a penalty in a big game”. It was a long time since we’d beaten Germany but that didn’t mean anything today. “They believe in themselves and we believe in ourselves too”, explained Deschamps.

France players celebrate in front of their fans at the end of the game in Marseille’s Stade Velodrome.

“When you see the passion and the fervour in the stands around the ground…this team has everything it takes to be loved”.

In his turn Germany keeper Manuel Neuer said: “We’ve played well during Euro 2016 but have been knocked out and that is very disappointing”.

“But in 2012 or 2010 when we went out, the other sides were better than us”. “We knew it would be very tough and we held firm defensively”. They lost to the Greeks, becoming the only team in history, losing in the final match at the home championship.

This has the potential to be one of the all-time great European finals, with the depth of quality on both sides abundant, but it could also be an anti-climatic bore draw that the Portuguese win on bloody penalties.

“We were the better team, we invested a lot (in the match)”, said Loew.

“Just because we are at home and beat Germany doesn’t give us extra powers”.

“We had our chances”.

And Kroos reacted: “We delivered our best performance at Euro 2016 today so it’s unusual that we suffered a 2-0 defeat”.

German had now run out of ideas and ultimately, despite all their possession and good passing, they just couldn’t break down the French defence.