France’s flair in the fantastic 4-3 win over Argentina in the last 16 was missing in this quarter-final match, although that was always likely to be the case. Uruguay are masters at defending deep and squeezing spaces against superior sides. Their gameplan is not new, but it remains as effective as ever. France also had Hugo Lloris to thank for a spectacular save from Martin Caceres, with Diego Godin blasting wide from the rebound. That was the closest Uruguay came, with La Celeste feeding off scraps in the second half without Cavani.
And just when it looked like the South Americans might get back into it in the second period, Fernando Muslera fumbled a long-range Griezmann effort and the ball ended up in the net to make it 2-0, the Galatasary goalkeeper’s gaffe coming almost on the same spot at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium as Willy Caballero’s clanger for Argentina against Croatia. That killed off the game and although it was not champagne football from France, Les Bleus found the unity and fight that has so often been lacking in the past and against Brazil or Belgium in the last four, they should find much more space for their stars to exploit.