France boss Didier Deschamps has admitted that he made two of his second-half substitutes in a bid to protect a pair of his key players.
Arsenal duo Laurent Kosciely and Olivier Giroud were both taken off in the 5-2 Euro2016 quarter-final win over Iceland in Paris after picking up yellow cards in earlier fixtures.
A further caution to either player would have ruled them out for Thursday's semi-final with World champions Germany and Descamps admits he wanted to preserve the playing status of the Gunners pair.
"It wasn't easy to manage everything but this evening we did all we had to in the first half," he said.
"Afterwards we let up a little, and I really wanted to protect Olivier Giroud and Laurent Koscielny.
"They were facing a possible suspension and it would have been really stupid to lose a player in such a game."
Striker Giroud scored twice for Les Bleus before being replaced by Andre-Pierre Signac on the hour-mark, while centre-back Koscielny made way for Eliaquim Mangala on 72 minutes.