France completed a remarkable comeback in the second half of the Nations League semifinal to defeat Belgium 3-2 after being two goals down at the end of the first half. Didier Dechamps’ men will now face Spain in the finals of the competition.
Both teams started the first half strong, with Kylian Mbappe and Karim Benzema leading the line for France yet again. However, Belgium got the breakthrough 37 minutes into the game after Yannick Carrasco fired the ball into the bottom corner. The ball took a deflection to completely beat Hugo Lloris, who could only stand and watch as the Atletico Madrid man scored.
Three minutes later, Romelu Lukaku registered his 68th goal for the national team as he fired the ball into the net from a very difficult angle. The Chelsea striker lifted the ball up with his weaker right foot and the shot powered past Lloris as the World’s number 1 team doubled their lead shortly before half time.
The second half spelled a completely different game, and France came out firing on all fronts. Belgium were almost complacent with their lead, and Karim Benzema punished them for it with his goal coming a couple minutes after the hour mark.
Kylian Mbappe then converted a penalty in the span of a few minutes, after Youri Tielemans kicked Antoine Griezmann rather than the ball, as deemed by the referee.
Belgium almost had the game won as Lukaku tapped the ball in from Carrasco’s cross in the 87th minute, but VAR disallowed the goal since the striker was offside. In the final minute of the game, Theo Hernandez scored his first goal for France as he fired a left footed strike past Thibaut Courtois.
France completed a sensational comeback to progress into the finals and only have Spain to beat to win the trophy.
