Exuberance of youth lights up Euro 2024 as next generation upstages subdued stars

Three months before the European Championship began, with France installed as pre-tournament favourites, a row broke out between two of the French Football Federation’s key strategists. The sporting director, Hubert Fournier, went public with his concern that Les Bleus, the senior national team, had an insufficiently rigorous planning process for penalty shoot-outs.

The long-serving head coach, Didier Deschamps, reacted angrily, cross that Fournier was intruding on his job, on territory Deschamps has guarded jealously for 12 years, a period that includes one triumphant World Cup, and silver medals in both the Euros and the last World Cup when France lost on penalties.

Deschamps argued there is only so much you can do to rehearse penalties, because the pressures on a player in a shoot-out, in a full stadium are never replicable on a practice ground.

But there are also certain things a coach might usually be reluctant to do if a tight knockout match in a major competition is edging towards a shoot-out to decide who goes through. Like take off his best penalty takers.

France versus Portugal in Hamburg at the weekend, a taut heavyweight clash for a place in the Euro 2024 semi-final was heading for a penalty tie-breaker when, halfway through extra time, scores locked at 0-0, Deschamps substituted Kylian Mbappe, his captain, chief match-winner and No 1 spot-kicker.

Mbappe, who has been playing since the opening game with a broken nose, was tired. But his withdrawal looked doubly ominous. Antoine Griezmann, France’s next-most expert spot-kicker, had also been substituted, in the second half.

So, come the final whistle, the game still goalless, when the list of France’s first five penalty takers was drawn up, Les Bleus' status