France v Netherlands: Women’s Euro 2022 quarter-final – live!

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It’s 0-0. I have not a solitary idea how, but it’s 0-0. France have been completely dominant and could easily be four up. Sandie Toletti missed a sitter, Delphine Cascarino hit the post and Stefanie Van der Gragt made two spectacular goalline clearances to deny Melvine Malard and Grace Geyoro.

42 min Janssen makes a desperate sliding challenge to beat Malard to Geyoro’s low cross. The Netherlands are defending heroically, but they surely can’t keep this up for 120 minutes.

41 min: Off the line again by Van der Gragt! Incredible stuff. Renard, who was still up following a corner, headed a long cross back across goal towards Geyoro. She slammed a half-volley from close range that was again blocked by Van der Gragt.

France appealed unsuccessully for a penalty. It did hit Van der Gragt’s arm, but she was holding it to her chest so it wasn’t handball.

Renard could have gone for goal herself, though she seemed to have put it on a plate for Geyoro. Van der Gragt had other ideas.

41 min One thing I’ll say for the Netherlands: their kit is magnificent. No side in world football produces as many great kits.

40 min Groenen is again lucky to avoid a yellow card, this time for a frustrated hack at Diani.

37 min: Off the line by Van der Gragt! This goalless dominance from France is getting silly. That was a superb move, which started with Bilbault flipping a pass out to Perisset on the right. She played in the underlapping Diani, whose sharp cutback took the keeper out of the game and found Malard at the far post. Malard stretched to control the ball, which was slightly behind her, and cracked a shot on the turn that was kneed off the line by Van der Gragt. Tremendous defending.

35 min Miedema has been very quiet, though that’s more a reflection of the balance of play than any fitness issues.

34 min The good news for the Netherlands is that it’s still 0-0.

31 min The impressive Diani loses Spitse in midfield with a swaggering roulette. France are well on top here.

28 min “Glad to see Malard rewarded with a place in the starting XI,” says Matt Dony. “Unfortunately, I’ve run out of duck jokes.”

Duck’s off!

27 min: Cascarino hits the post! How are France not ahead? A corner from the right is half cleared and loops towards Cascarino, 25 yards out. She cuts across a volley that skims along the turf and hits the inside of the post! Van Domselaar saw it late and barely moved.

24 min A loose square pass from van de Donk goes straight to Geyoro on the halfway line. She moves forward and plays the ball left to Malard, whose shot on the turn goes well wide of the near post. It was a good run from Malard, whose movement is outstanding, but she lost her bearings slightly before she took the shot.

23 min: Great chance for Toletti! Diani’s deep cross isn’t cleared properly by the unsighted Wilms and rolls invitingly towards Toletti. She runs onto the ball, 12 yards from goal, but spanks a wild shot over the bar. That was the best chance of the match.

22 min “How likely is a Netherlands win today?” says Brendan Large. “As an England fan (but not a great watcher of the women’s game just yet) I see France as a big threat and would rather they went home now.”

It feels about 60/40 in France’s favour. To be honest, and why wouldn’t I be, whoever England play from here will be a big threat – the five remaining teams are all potential winners.

21 min Cascarino cuts inside from the left, uses the overlapping Karchaoui by not using her and smacks a rising drive that is pawed away by Van Domselaar. She’s already made a handful of good saves.

20 min Cascarino’s deflected cross is headed behind for another corner by Van der Gragt. Toletti floats it deep towards Renard, who flicks a header wide under pressure. Again, a half chance at best.

19 min This is a really good spell for France. Spitse is forced to concede another corner after a game of head tennis in the Dutch penalty area.

17 min A low cross from the right is shanked towards her own goal by Janssen, and Van Domselaar flies to her right to palm the ball away. That’s a pretty good save, especially as she wouldn’t have been expecting it. Moments later, Bilbault hits a sweet shot from 25 yards that is well held to her left by Van Domselaar.

15 min The left-back Casparij is caught upfield, which allows Diani to charge into space when France break. She runs 50 yards, to the edge of the area, before driving a low shot that is too close to Van Domselaar.

14 min The corner is swung to the far post, where Renard gets away from Groenen but heads wide from 12 yards. A half chance at best.

13 min The resulting free-kick is curled deep by Toletti and headed behind by Miedema. France’s first corner…

13 min Groenen is lucky to avoid a yellow card for a cynical tackle on Karchaoui.

12 min For the first time in the tournament, France haven’t scored in the first ten minutes.

10 min The corner is a mess and almost goes out for a throw-in.

9 min The Netherlands are coming into the game. Miedema tees up Spitse for a long-range drive that hits a defender and spins behind for a corner.

8 min Spitse flips Toletti up in the air, a challenge that looked worse live than on the replays. No yellow card.

5 min Netherlands have their first extended spell of possession. Casparij turns Perisset very neatly on the left and curls a bouncing cross towards the far post, where Karchaoui inadvertently heads the ball towards her own goal. Peyraud-Magnin leaps to make a comfortable save.

3 min France have made a fast, dominant start, with the Netherlands barely crossing the halfway in the first few minutes.

2 min “Ah!” says Charles Antaki. “The director has found, early doors, the fan with the thing on her head which is either a curling stone or a round of cheese. The latter is probably more likely, given that she’s a Netherlands fan, but presumably there is some curling done on canals in the winter?”

You’re asking me? I am an expert in very few things, and canal curling is emphatically not one of them.

1 min A half chance for France in the first minute. Diani threads a brilliant pass into Geyoro in the area, but Janssen ensures she can’t get a clean shot at goal and the ball dribbles through to Van Domselaar.

1 min Peep peep! France kick off from left to right as we watch. This could be spectacular.

Here come the players. It’s a pleasant night in Rotherham, around 21C, and the Dutch end is the usual sea of orange.

“Hi Rob,” says Peter Oh. “I’m sure the orange-clad masses will help the Dutch team feel like they’re playing in Rotterdam and not in Rotherham.”

The players who will miss the semi-final if they are booked tonight

France Sakina Karchaoui

Netherlands Lineth Beerensteyn, Dominique Janssen, Jill Roord, Damaris Egurrola

Louise Taylor’s preview

Vivianne Miedema returns for the Netherlands, one of three changes from their win over Switzerland. Kerstin Casparij and Victoria Pelova also come in, with Aniek Nouwen, Jill Roord and the injured Lieke Martens missing out. The inclusion of Casparij means Dominique Janssen will move across to centre-back.

Corinne Diacre, who rested a number of France players against Iceland, returns to her strongest XI. There are two changes from the side that beat Belgium in their second game: Melvine Malard for the injured Marie-Antoinette Katoto up front and Sandie Toletti for Clara Mateo in midfield.

France (4-3-3) Peyraud-Magnin; Perisset, Mbock Bathy, Renard, Karchaoui; Toletti, Bilbault, Geyoro; Diani, Malard, Cascarino.Substitutes: Chavas, Lerond, Palis, Torrent, Tounkara, Mateo, Bacha, Dali, Baltimore, Sarr, Cissoko.

Netherlands (4-3-3) Van Domselaar; Wilms, Van der Gragt, Janssen, Casparij; Groenen, van de Donk, Spitse; Beerensteyn, Miedema, Pelova.Substitutes: Weimar, Lorsheyd, Nouwen, van Dongen, Roord, R Jansen, Dijkstra, Leuchter, Olislagers, Egurrola, Brugts.

Now this is a quarter-final: France and the Netherlands, third and fourth in the world rankings, playing for the right to face Germany in the last four. In simplistic terms, it’s the underachievers against the champions. And the underachievers are favourites.

France – and even though I’m typing this I still don’t entirely believe it – have never reached the semi-finals of the European Championship. The Netherlands have no such simian backpack: they won the competition in memorable style in 2017.

The Netherlands’ defence of their title has been both perfectly fine and slightly underwhelming. They beat Portugal and Switzerland and drew with Sweden, which is about par, but they had to work harder than expected for those two wins. “We’re still waiting,” says their manager Mark Parsons, “for that performance where we all say we got to a level that gives us goosebumps.”

There is a caveat – the absence of Vivianne Miedema, who was in Covid isolation for the games against Portugal and Switzerland. She is back in the starting XI tonight. Sadly it’s one in, one out for the Netherlands, as the great Lieke Martens is out of the tournament with a foot problem.

The French are also without one a Paris Saint-Germain star: Marie-Antoinette Katoto, who suffered a serious knee injury in the second group game against Belgium. Melvine Malard deputised excellently in the draw against Iceland and starts tonight, but Katoto is a big loss.

France made a rampant start to the tournament, scoring five in the first half against Italy. Since then they have been a lot quieter – they lost the second half 1-0 to Italy, beat Belgium 2-1 and drew 1-1 with Iceland in what was, for them at least, a dead rubber.

Iceland’s 102nd-minute equaliser, so late it was almost posthumous, ended France’s run of 16 consecutive wins. That sequence included a 3-1 victories over the Netherlands at the Tournoi de France in February. But it’s hard to know how much we should read into that, especially as two of the goals were scored by – yep – Marie-Antoinette Katoto.

The France manager Corinne Diacre says the Netherlands are probably favourites tonight, though I’d disagree with that. Not to her face. Not cos I’m scared of her.

Objectively, France are slight favourites to go through. But we all know that, in a heavyweight clash like this, anything is possible.

Kick off 8pm.