France reach last eight but sweat over Katoto injury as Mbock sinks Belgium

France secured their place in the knockout stages of the European Championships with a game to spare after emerging as victors against Belgium on a dusky summer evening, but they will wait anxiously for news on the knee injury suffered by their striker Marie-Antoinette Katoto.

Their opponents, meanwhile, will now have to hope results elsewhere go their way. Though they kept the scoreline respectable, they were unable to deny Kadidiatou Diani and Griedge Mbock from punishing their defensive lapses.

France, who had begun their group stage campaign with a 5-1 rout of Italy, gave Belgium’s defence no time to acclimatise to their blistering attack. They immediately set out to ask questions of their opponents via Grace Geyoro.

Given that Geyoro had racked up a hat-trick in her previous game, it seemed a sensible decision for Belgium to focus their attention on her. Yet it was Kadidiatou Diani who snuck in at the far post in the sixth minute to nod in a perfectly timed header from Sakina Karchaoui’s deep cross.

After a lengthy VAR check for a possible offside, the game got going again – and so did the French attack. This time they were led by Clara Matéo on the opposite flank, who was cutting in and running rings around Sari Kees. She almost made it 2-0 with a curling effort that led to reverberating “oohs” around the New York Stadium.

From top to bottom, France were purring. If there was any point of concern for their manager, Corinne Diacre, it would have been the early substitution of Katoto, who seemed to go down without any provocation and left the pitch clutching a knee.

Her replacement, Ouleymata Sarr, had no time to settle. Moments later she was watching Janice Cayman level for Belgium with a toe-poke that trickled past