“Even the strongest people have their [bad] days. I was at rock bottom when the team needed me the most,” Ronaldo said afterwards, reported by the BBC.

Monday night in Frankfurt is when it hit home for Martinez. Bringing Ronaldo back in from the cold having been frozen out by predecessor Fernando Santos in Qatar for a comfortable, hassle-free Euro 2024qualification campaign, Ronaldo pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes in the opening two group stage matches.

Taking a bit of a closer look at those team line-ups and Portugal have opted for an unchanged starting XI despite playing 120 minutes and a penalty shootout against Slovenia last time out.

Two changes for France, meanwhile. Eduardo Camavinga comes into midfield for the suspended Adrien Rabiot, while up top Randal Kolo Muani starts in place of Marcus Thuram.

Here are the line-ups for tonight’s quarter-final:

Portugal XI: Costa; Cancelo, Dias, Pepe, Mendes; Vitinha, Palhinha; Bernardo, Fernandes, Leão; Ronaldo

France XI: Maignan; Koundé, Upamecano, Saliba, Hernández; Tchouaméni, Kanté, Camavinga; Griezmann; Kolo Muani, Mbappé

Team news is imminent. Will Ronaldo keep his place? How will France utilise Mbappe?

Didier Deschamps needs a lone trophy to finish a unique grand slam. He has won the World Cup and the European Championships as a player, the World Cup as a manager. Euro 2024 may allow him to complete the set; he would have done so already but for Portugal and for a team that may have out-Deschampsed Deschamps.

In the eight years since Euro 2016, when Portugal won their only major trophy, against France in France, the Deschamps way has become more apparent: it isn’t necessary to excel in a group stage or to make statements with the quality of the football. Games can be won by moments, clean sheets, set pieces, unlikely figures.

With Belgium sat deep, France struggled mightily to create clear chances despite controlling the contest, flashing a series of finishes wide and high but never looking particularly likely to break through.

But they finally struck five minutes from time, Randal Kolo Muanireleasing a shot at the end of a fluent passing move that took a healthy piece of Vertonghen’s knee to beat Koen Casteels in the Belgian goal.

Despite a French player still being yet to score from open play in Germany, Didier Deschamps’ side move on, while Belgium bow out after another major tournament disappointment.

But how did each player perform? Here are The Independent’s player ratings:

The report from France’s last game…

Of course, it wasn’t pretty. Didier Deschamps won’t care. All that matters, the French coach would strenuously argue, is that they got there. That could be said about France’s winning goal and the very 1-0 last-16 winover Belgium it decided.

After 85 minutes of what had perhaps been the worst football in this tournament – outside, maybe, some of England’s games – substitute Randal Kolo Muani tried a speculative shot that was mishit off the ground and deflected off the unfortunate Jan Vertonghen and in.

The game maybe deserved that, but it’s arguable whether France did. An otherwise sensationally talented squad made their way into the quarter-finals by dour obduracy rather than any creativity or class. It may yet take them to ultimate victory, of course, but it doesn’t make much of it memorable. The most stirring moment of the game was a tackle by Theo Hernandez on Yannick Carrasco.

It could be quipped that the game against Belgium actually had to end for a French player to do anything impressive, but this is too serious an issue. What’s more, before Jules Kounde spoke in the impressive way he did, the defender had already won man of the match in his country’s 1-0 over Belgium.

He had been superb in play. He then surpassed it with his words. Kounde was asked about the first round of the French legislative election results, which look set to bring the far-right National Rally into political influence. The 25-year-old had already posted some of his thoughts on social media, which could have been an excuse to deflect questions and point to those. Kounde wasn’t going for any of that. He feels this is too important.

“I was disappointed to see the direction France is taking, with strong support for a party against our values. The far-right party, National Rally, who are against freedom and are against our co-existence. That is my political position.”

The superstar forward was left covered in blood after suffering the brutal injury when his face collided into the shoulder of Austria defender Kevin Danso, later leaving the stadium in an ambulance.

Subsequent tests confirmed Mbappe did not require immediate surgeryand he returned to training two days later while sporting a protective covering in the colours of the French flag, alleviating concerns that he would be ruled out of the tournament.