France and Netherlands produced the first scoreless draw of in a tightly-contested game in Leipzig, to leave both sides looking nervously over their shoulders - but it wasn't a game without controversy and debate after Xavi Simons' late strike was ruled out after a lengthy VAR display. A highly-anticipated game almost sprung into life within the first minute when a long, raking ball down the right-hand side saw Jeremie Frimpong beat Theo Hernandez for pace; though the man saw his shot cutely tipped around the post by Mike Maignan in what was a huge scare for Les Bleus. It was France's turn to go next; fired over from distance, but he should have scored with a golden opportunity when Adrien Rabiot broke through the Netherlands defence, only to square it to Griezmann, who was not expecting the ball to come to him.
troubled Maignan a couple of times, and Marcus Thuram fired over as he bore down on goal; but neither side could break the deadlock and we went into the break without a goal. The second half ebbed and flowed, with a lot of chances going either way. 's free kick slammed into the wall, before France ramped up their creativity.
Marcus Thuram dragged a shot wide, nodded over, and Griezmann could've scored again but his first touch after breaching the backline was poor and Bart Verbruggen spread himself superbly to halt the attacker. And that almost came back to bite them. The Netherlands started a pass-laden attack, and with Depay holding the ball up, the striker fired a .
