Olivier Giroud expressed his delight after the huge victory for France over England in the World Cup quarter final.

France advanced to the semifinal of the World Cup on Saturday evening with a 2-1 win over England in and enthralling contest.

Les Bleus opened the scoring in the first half through Aurelien Tchouameni who scored a brilliant goal from outside the box. His long range strike had too much pace on it for Jordan Pickford who tried his best to reach the shot to no avail.

Tchouameni was then responsible for France conceding the penalty that brought England back in the game. He brought down Bukayo Saka in the box and Kane made no mistake with his penalty which drew England level.

The winning goal was then scored by Olivier Giroud towards the end of the second half. He headed home a delivery from Antoine Griezmann to restore France's lead.

England were once again given a lifeline from the penalty spot after Theo Hernandez needlessly brought down Mason Mount in the box but Harry Kane skied his second penalty of the match.

After the game, the game winner, Giroud likened this victory to the one against Belgium four years ago and didn't hide how pleaded he was after his country got the victory.

"It's extraordinary. We worked really hard defensively when we were ahead. It reminds me of Belgium in 2018," said Giroud, referring to France's 1-0 win in the semi-finals four years ago in Russia.

"Unfortunately we conceded the penalty. But we were able to be dangerous on a few occasions at the end of the match."

"You always have to believe and (Antoine) Griezmann gave me a great ball (for the goal)."

"I'm so proud. We pulled out a big performance tonight," he added. "We knew the potential of this young English generation. They've got it all. We had to use our mental strength to get over the line."

France manager, Didier Deschamps said his side were a bit lucky to have beaten England but he was delighted with the victory regardless of how it came.

'It was a big game, we played a superb England team who are strong technically and physically.

'It's brilliant for the players to be in the last four again. We got a bit lucky although we gave away two penalties but we kept our lead with our hearts and our guts.'

'I've watched all the quarter-finals - no team that has qualified for the semi-finals was in control of their match for all, or maybe even the majority of the time.

'I would've preferred if we hadn't given England some gifts, but they were at a really high level.'

France will continue their quest to retain the World Cup for the first time in 60 years when they take on Morocco on the 14th of December.