France completed the semi-finals lineup of the ongoing women’s Euros after knocking out the defending champions the Netherlands.
Defender Eve Perisset’s penalty in extra time was enough to earn France a 1-0 win booking their place in Euros last four for the first time.
France, whose last three journeys at the Euros ended in the quarterfinals, were the better side for all of the game but could not get a goal until the 102nd minute despite surrounding the Dutch goal. The Dutch just had a single shot on target throughout the game, even with their all-time top scorer Vivianne Miedema returning to the lineup.
Despite having scored in the first half of every game, France were frustrated by a stoic Netherlands defense and a brilliant Daphne Van Domselaar in goal whose incredible saves helped her side take the game to extra time. The 22-year-old had one cap before taking over from the injured Sari van Veenendaal in their opening 1-1 draw against Sweden.
Van Domselaar parried away shot after shot from the French, a trend started by Diani in the 15th minute and followed up by Charlotte Bilbault and Delphine Cascarino in the next five minutes as they continued to test her from outside the box.
Cascarino continued to seek the opening goal with an effort in the 27th minute but her attempt hit the post as France failed to translate their domination into goals.
Eventually, after toiling away for a hundred and two minutes, Corinne Diacre’s side were awarded the penalty after Kadidiatou Diani was brought down by Dominique Janssen and Perisset fired the resulting effort into the corner of the net past the diving van Domselaar to win the game for her side.
Their reward for winning the Euros semi-finals is an outing against eight-time European champions Germany.
With the win, France also became the fourth nation to have reached the semifinals of the Women’s Euros, World Cup, and Olympics after Germany, Norway, and Sweden.
