Germany 0-2 France: Antoine Griezmann’s double strike sees hosts into the Euro 2016 final as world champions are eliminated

Antoine Griezmann scored both goals as France beat Germany to reach the Euro 2016 final in Marseille on Thursday evening

Griezmann celebrates after scoring from 12 yards in first-half stoppage time to send the host nation into the interval ahead

France were awarded the spot-kick after Bastian Schweinsteiger blocked Patrice Evra’s header with his hand in the box

Schweinsteiger was booked by referee Nicola Rizzoli and Griezmann stepped up against Manuel Neuer from 12 yards

Neuer struck his left-footed effort beyond the Bayern Munich goalkeeper to put France in front

Neuer guessed the wrong way and Griezmann continued his hot streak in front of goal at the European Championship

Evra leads the celebrations after Griezmann’s goal, which came against the run of play at Stade Velodrome in Marseille

But for once Joachim Low’s team revealed themselves to be mortal. There is, it appears, no flawless formula in the German DNA.

The problem here was that they couldn’t score. To compound that, they gifted France two goals, and, with them, a place in the final against Portugal.

This, generally, is not what the Germans do. Usually, they do what England never can. They over-achieve, they maximise and move inexorably forwards even when it seems as though they cannot.

So this was a reversal and, as such, a night to remember across Europe and not only in France.

We do not begrudge the hosts. Didier Deschamps’ team have performed in this tournament under considerable pressure.

Their country has suffered over the last eight months and this French team have known all along that the opportunity to brighten the mood a little has been theirs. That is some weight to carry.

They are not the best French team we have ever seen. They are not the best team to compete at Euro 2016.

But they have tried to play on the front foot and have tried to play bravely and their little forward Antoine Griezmann has been a wonderful embodiment of that.

What a lovely and watchable player the 25-year-old has proved to be.

This is a young forward whose club season ended dismally as he missed a penalty in Atletico Madrid’s Champions League defeat against city rivals Real.

Yet he has set about this tournament with a hunger and an ambition that has set the tone of a team that has grown slowly into the rhythm of this festival.

If Dimitri Payet set France rolling early on, Griezmann has taken the baton now.

His goals rescued France amid nerves and uncertainty against the Republic of Ireland in the last 16 in Lyon and his two strikes wrestled this game away from the Germans after almost 45 minutes that had seen the world champions outplay their opponents from front to back.

France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris enjoys Griezmann’s goal just before the break during a pulsating encounter

Low and his players will argue all the way home about the penalty decision that gave France the edge in the death throes of the opening period. Certainly, it was a close call and it irreversibly changed the flow of the match.

There is no doubt about that and replays suggest justice was done.

Though Bastian Schweinsteiger would not agree, he did give referee Nicola Rizzoli a decision to make when he showed a leading arm while jumping clumsily with Patrice Evra at a corner and when the Italian official came down on the side of the blue appeals, possibly on the advice of an assistant, Griezmann stepped forward to bury his penalty emphatically past Manuel Neuer.

It really was a huge moment in this tournament. France had started well and Griezmann could have scored in only the sixth minute as he played a double one-two with Blaise Matuidi — maybe we call that a 1-2-3-4 — before working Neuer low to the goalkeeper’s left.

After that, however, the German midfield took over and virtually the next 40 minutes of the game was played to the beat of their drum.

Deschamps had set £100million man Paul Pogba and Matuidi at the base of his midfield and left Leicester’s N’Golo Kante on the bench.

But it was Schweinsteiger, Mesut Ozil and the brilliant Toni Kroos who ran the game, and had the strangely out of sorts Thomas Muller taken an early chance then we would no doubt be telling a different story on Friday morning.

France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris also saved well from Emre Can and touched a Schweinsteiger effort over the bar. Moments later Muller and Kroos got in each other’s way as Joshua Kimmich advanced to cross.

If it wasn’t quite a procession, the traffic was certainly moving in only one direction. But if you give a team an excuse to stay in a game then they may occasionally say thank you and this was the way after the break as France proved more resistant to German thrusts.

Low’s team still dominated the play. Kroos’ pass statistics alone were astonishing. But in truth they lacked penetration as the game wore on and only in the latter stages did they create clear chances. By then they were two down and again it was a goal born of German misadventure.

Kimmich lost possession when trying to be clever in his own penalty area and when Pogba crossed nicely from the left Neuer could only palm the ball on to Griezmann’s boot.

It is never quite over with the Germans, of course, and they kept playing properly. There is something to admire in that. Kimmich hit the bar and drew a super save from Lloris, and Benedikt Howedes headed over.

This was not their night, though, and this is not their tournament. They are just like the rest of us, after all.

Lloris reaches up to push a long-range effort over the top of the crossbar as the Germans continued to dominate

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