Euro 2024 preview: Scintillating Spain face semi-final with goal-shy France

Goal-shy France will be looking to silence the critics when they take on Spain in their Euro 2024 semi-final match on Tuesday, while their opponents hope to keep their impressive campaign going even without key players.

With Kylian Mbappe leading their talented squad, France were well among the favourites when they arrived in Germany.

But they have come under fire from fans and pundits alike for a string of unimpressive performances and have reached the last four without scoring a single goal in open play.

Despite reaching the final of the last two World Cups, winning in Russia in 2018 and losing only on penalties to Argentina in Qatar four years later, their Euros record under coach Didier Deschamps is less impressive. In his 12 years, their best result was a runner-up spot in 2016 on home soil.

On Friday they only edged past Portugal on penalties, with Mbappe substituted after another match where he spent more time fiddling with his mask than setting up his teammates.

Deschamps' France often manage to be dour and dramatic at the same time - defensively solid, they tend to waste chances up front, and they survived against Portugal partly thanks to similarly wasteful Cristiano Ronaldo.

"Listen, if you're bored you can watch something else, it's not a big deal, isn't it?" said Deschamps to a Swedish journalist who asked about accusations of boring football.

"You don't have to do anything else. Listen, this is a special European championship where it's very difficult for everyone. So far, the number of goals has been much lower than in the past.

"So, what I know is that we have the ability to share our emotions and make a lot of French people happy through the results we've been able to achieve, especially during this complicated