Match previews for Monday

France vs. Belgium (Düsseldorf; 6 p.m. local / midday ET)

Odds (via ESPN BET): France -110, Draw +220, Belgium +350

And they meet again! Six years after the epic 2018 World Cup semifinal (1-0 win for France after a Samuel Umtiti header) and three years after a spectacular Nations League semifinal (3-2 win for France thanks to a late Theo Hernández winner), the two teams are ready to reignite their old rivalry on Monday.

It was 120 years ago when they met in their first international game and, since then, the derby has been more of a French affair than anything else. But despite the dominance of the past, Didier Deschamps and his players know that they can't take anything for granted. Under Domenico Tedesco, Kevin De Bruyne & Co. have been poor in this tournament and are due a good performance after an underwhelming group stage. But Kylian Mbappé and his teammates are also expected to raise their game.

Under Deschamps, France have always been ruthless in knockout games: they have not lost one over 90 minutes since 2014. The head coach has used the last few days to gather his group together and get them in the right mindset to unleash their potential. -- Julien Laurens

Portugal vs. Slovenia (Frankfurt; 9 p.m. local / 3 p.m. ET)

Odds: Portugal -270, Draw +380, Slovenia +750

Portugal are heavy favourites to progress past Slovenia, but there are concerns among some fans that they are exactly the type of team that can cause them problems.

In a friendly between the two teams in March, Portugal had almost 70% possession but managed just two shots on target as Slovenia won 2-0 to hand Roberto Martinez his first defeat as coach. Portugal, who rested players but still included Pepê, Diogo Dalot, João Cancelo, João Félix and Cristiano Ronaldo, found Slovenia's deep, compact defence hard to break down and were caught on the counter -- much in the same way Georgia found success against Martinez's team in their group stage win in Gelsenkirchen.

Ronaldo is expected to start against Slovenia in Frankfurt, two years after he was sensationally dropped for Portugal's round-of-16 tie against Switzerland at the World Cup in Qatar. The 39-year-old is still looking for his first goal of Euro 2024. -- Dawson.

Betting tip (odds via ESPN BET)

Cristiano Ronaldo might be struggling, but Portugal can turn to star midfielder Bruno Fernandes, and if he scores a goal and also provides an assist against Slovenia, then the odds are +550 -- ESPN

One big read

He was a shock inclusion in France's Euro 2024 squad after 24 months away from international football, but N'Golo Kanté is back with a bang, and it's one of the greatest stories of the tournament so far.

The last time the 33-year-old played for Les Blues (before the warm-up games for Euro 2024) was in a 2-1 Nations League defeat to Denmark in June 2022. After that, a bad hamstring injury saw him miss the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and 90% of the 2022-23 season with Chelsea. Then his move to Saudi Arabian side Al Ittihad in the summer of 2023 pushed him further out of the spotlight and many wondered if we would ever see the all-action midfielder play for his country again.

Before travelling to Germany, Kanté beat everyone else in the squad in the physical tests. And, as if anyone needed reminding of his quality, his performances in training quickly won his teammates over.

In the first two matches of Euro 2024, against Austria (1-0) and Netherlands (0-0), Kanté won the Man of the Match award on both occasions. He ran more than anyone else on the pitch, recovered the ball more than anyone else, and won more duels than anyone else. He was everywhere.

- Laurens: Kanté is back, better than ever, and France need him badly

And finally ...

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It was to be expected, but reading the Italian newspapers on Sunday morning after defending champions Italy's humiliating 2-0 defeat against Switzerland to knock them out in the round of 16 was quite brutal.

"Una vergogna" (a disgrace) was the headline in Corriere dello Sport.

For Tuttosport, it was "Fallimento Nazionale" ("national failure," or "failure of the national team," as Nazionale is also one of the nicknames of the Azzurri).

There was "Disgust and anger" from Corriere della Sera, while Gazzetta dello Sport's cover was "What a humiliation!" The paper also called for "everything to be rebuilt" and said that "the time for excuses is over."

Inside their main article, the tone is as aggressive as the others: "Two years thrown in the bin. The flop against North Macedonia (defeat in the World Cup 2022 playoffs), the [Roberto] Mancini farewell and now Switzerland: Italy lost itself."

Every media outlet in the country has obviously been heavily critical of the players and manager Luciano Spalletti.

The coach, who will stay in charge after the tournament, was accused of getting too many things wrong, namely "his tactics, his choices, the preparation," according to Gazzetta.

But La Repubblica has done its criticism the best with a cooking metaphor: "The pasta carbonara, you can do it if you have eggs, guanciale (some salt-cured meat) and pecorino (some hard cheese made from sheep's milk). If you only have garlic and a bit of oil, you have to change the recipe. But no, that, he didn't understand it." -- Laurens