Deschamps praises France's patience against 'cautious' Belgium
Despite still struggling to find their rhythm in attack, France found a way past Belgium in the last 16 to make it into the quarter-finals.
Didier Deschamps believes France's patience paid off as they edged to a narrow victory over a "cautious" Belgium side at Euro 2024.
Billed as the match to look out for in the round of 16, the game did not live up to expectations, though France got the all-important goal when Jan Vertonghen inadvertently turned Randal Kolo Muani’s shot into his own net.
France will now face either Portugal or Slovenia in the last eight, and they have done so without scoring a goal from open play, with two own goals and a penalty making up their current tally.
Deschamps has credited France's persistence following the win against who he believes are a tough side to face.
"We made a lot of progress and I think that the opponent was obviously a little bit more cautious, even though on paper Belgium is quite an offensive team," Deschamps said.
"They are quite an attacking team, they maybe, held back a little bit more than we're used to seeing. On our side as well, even though we did everything we could to try and attack, to try and score, to try and create chances.
"We managed to create more chances than Belgium did, but we were also maybe on the back foot. We were intelligent, we were playing the waiting game, and we weren't going to fall into the trap of giving them the space that they were looking for."
Excluding own goals, France have not scored from any of their 66 non-penalty shots at Euro 2024.
With many questions being asked about Les Bleus' finishing, Deschamps admitted it is an area they will continue to work on.
"Obviously, you can't win games just through possession, but it's better having the possession of the ball and attacking and making the team defend," Deschamps added. "But the number of shots we had, that's probably the only thing that I want to work on.
"I think that on the pitch there's high intensity, and even if today the goal is enough for us to get to the quarter-finals, we've always got the capacity and the capability to score more.
"I'm immensely proud of what we've been able to do, and we're into the quarter-finals, and that's probably what counts."