World Cup Russia Semifinal Day #1 - France Knocks Out Belgium & Punches Ticket to Final

France 1, Belgium 0

France has qualified for a third final ever in this World Cup, as they dispatched with one of the most explosive and dangerous teams yesterday. They managed to just edge out Belgium, the third ranked team in the world. Belgium was extremely talented, and many considered this the best Belgian side ever, even giving them the nickname of the "Golden Generation" for Belgian football.

However, they will fall short of qualifying for the final after giving up a header in the 51st minute. Samuel Umtiti managed to beat Belgian defender Marouane Fellaini on a corner kick from Antoine  Grienmann to get a clear shot on a header. The ball sailed past Belgian goalkeeper Thibault Courtois and into the corner of the goal to put France up, 1-0.

After that, France's stifling defense essentially shut down the normally dangerous and often explosive Belgian offense containing numerous dangerous threats, particularly Romelu Lukaku, who was frustrated and rendered almost completely ineffectual. The couple of times that the ball went to him deep in French territory, he seemed more caught by surprise than anything else, and he was unable to capitalize on any of those opportunities.

The French defense remained solid, and proved up to the task of preserving the admittedly narrow 1-0 advantage. Belgium had some incredible scoring opportunities, but bad luck and excellent, top-notch defending served to squelch each of these opportunities. Hugo Lloris was solid in goal, earning his fourth clean sheet of the tournament.

Olivier Giroud still remains without a goal in this World Cup, although he had some solid chances that helped to keep the Belgian side honest. For that matter, young Kylian Mbappé did not score a goal, either, although he too provided enough scares to keep the Belgians mindful to focus on defense, and not just have any all-out offensive assaults. There was one moment very late in the game when Mbappé showed some immaturity, kicked the ball away from a Belgian who was aiming for a thrown in, thus earning a yellow card for delaying the game, as well as being quite unsportsmanlike.

Still, despite only converting one goal, it was enough. France's defense was extremely solid, and showed just how good they can be by limiting a dangerous Belgium side consistently throughout the match.

As a result, France became the first team to punch their ticket to the final on Sunday.

One member of that 1998 championship team, Didier Deschamps, is now the head coach of the current French team. Some people had criticized his coaching style for being overly conservative. However, you can hardly argue with the results that he has managed to help the French side accomplish. They qualified for the World Cup final, and have a chance to win it, which would place Deschamps in very elite company as the third man to have ever won the World Cup as a player and as a coach. Brazil's Mario Zagallo won as a player in 1958, and as a coach in 1970, and Germany's Franz Beckenbauer also accomplished the feat by winning the 1974 World Cup as a player, then hoisting the trophy again in 1990 as a coach.

France qualified for the Euro final two years ago, although they ultimately lost to Portugal, which left a feeling of unfinished business that they hope to avoid this time. Didier has done a tremendous job as coach, and this is the third time that France qualified for the World Cup final match in 20 years, although it should be noted that France had never qualified for a final match at the tournament prior to 1998, when they won it all. They have a chance to win their second world title if they win.

First, they have to know who they will play against. That will be determined later today in the second semifinal round game between England and Croatia.