Kylian Mbappé celebrates France winning goal against Belgium in Vertonghen’s face at Euro 2024

Kylian Mbappé captained France to victory in their Euro 2024 round of 16 tie against Belgium in Düsseldorf on Monday, and the Real Madrid attacker made his delight at his team’s winning goal clear to opposing defender Jan Vertonghen, with whom he had some beef during the game.

With only five minutes of regulation time to play and the game level at 0-0, the unfortunate Vertonghen deflected Randal Kolo Muani’s shot into his own net, sending Didier Deschamps’ team through to the Euro 2024 quarterfinals.

And a masked Mbappé appeared to take particular joy at the manner of his team’s winner, having previously become embroiled in an argument with Belgian earlier in the match.

Why was there beef between Mbappé and Vertonghen?

It seemingly stemmed from Vertonghen’s belief that the French superstar had dived with about 20 minutes left on the clock, an assessment the 25-year-old clearly didn’t agree with. The pair went head to head and chest to chest as they argued with one another, forcing referee Glynn Nyberg to intervene.

But they story was far from finished there, with Mbappé running up to Vertonghen to celebrate in his face after Kolo Muani’s 85th-minute strike flicked off his leg and into the Belgium net, settling the tie.

Les Bleus have reached the last eight despite scoring only three goals, two of which have been own goals. Mbappé is the only French player to have found the net (a penalty in the group stage draw against Poland), but has yet to do so in open play.