Euro 2024: “It’s a moment when your heart accelerates”, Benjamin Psaume deciphers the Blues’ victorious penalty shootout

Théo Hernandez a inscrit le tir au but décisif. – MAXPPP

Consultant Midi Libre, l’ex-joueur de Toulouse, Arles-Avignon et Troyes est revenu sur la séance de tirs au but de France-Portugal.

"Behind, for me, you are the best team in the Euro since you manage to concede few chances. The Portuguese created a few situations, but in the end, you concede few and you have a great goalkeeper. We are very solid, compact, aggressive, and then we see if we can put 2-3 arrows in counterattack.

Football has changed, I have the impression that it is much more defensive than before. When some teams were moving forward, they were planning a lot…hellip; Apart from Spain in a pinch, I notice that all the teams play first, initially, in order not to lose. I see big tactical battles between the selectors.

Also read: VIDEO. France-Portugal: Jules Koundé's top corner, Joao Felix's post, Théo Hernandez's liberating goal… relive the penalty shootout

The French shots on goal, there are three which are taken extremely well, high in the air, on the side.
On a penalty, the goal, for me, when I took one, I always told myself that the goalkeeper was going to go the right way, so we had to find a good angle and the right area. Koundé, Hernandez and Barcola took risks in their strikes, shooting hard in the air, but there it was unstoppable.

We could see against Slovenia, that the Portuguese goalkeeper left very quickly each time, Fofana shoots in the middle, it's not stupid, and the first from Dembélé, perfect counter-foot . Penalties are difficult, of course. You can work on them every day, in training, pull them every day, the context means that you will notice that the foot shakes a lot more on match day.

"Don't think about the consequences, go liberated"

It's a moment when you have the most pressure and your heart speeds up, like never before, when you put the ball on the penalty spot. Taking a penalty is an incredible psychological and emotional burden. The number 1 quality of a good peno shooter is also to not think about the consequences, to go liberated.

Barcola and his 21-year-old, Koundé who had never shot professionally… The Portuguese Joao Félix, he must have taken hundreds and hundreds of penalties, he is a good technician, but there, the pressure he had when he had only just finished return…

Also read: VIDEO. "We all stay together!" : Kylian Mbappé's speech before the penalty shootout between France and Portugal

If we look at each TAB session, the guy who comes in at the 115th or 117th minute, just to shoot, often misses. He's not in the “mood” at all, he was perhaps tired of not starting the match, of perhaps not coming home early.

Deschamps wanted to bring Giroud into this role at the end, fortunately time did not allow him to do so because it would not have been a gift for the former Montpellier, returned with the pressure… you only have this gesture to make, if you're a little angry, you can modify your strike, by saying: “Go ahead, I'll break the cage&rdquo ;… Giroud had everything to lose. Bringing in a goalkeeper is different when he’s a specialist."

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