Can France overcome ze Germans?
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France wasn’t going to have its home stadium to itself and Gylfi Sigurdsson even had the game’s first shot although it was easily saved by France captain Hugo Lloris.
“We’ll have to give everything we’ve got, it’ll be a semi-final at home, in front of so many supporters”, he said after his goal against Iceland left him top of the Euro 2016 scorers’ charts with four.
Two goal man-of-the match Olivier Giroud said his side would be out to avenge their 2014 World Cup quarter-final defeat to Germany.
And joint coach Lars Lagerback, who will step down after the tournament, insists that the team can now build in their performances at Euro 2016.
He does miss chances, sometimes many, but good strikers keep getting them because they know how to find unsafe positions.
Jon Dadi Bodvarsson skied over after Aron Gunnarsson’s long throw caused trouble inside the French penalty area, but Les Bleus had wrapped up their place in the last four by half-time.
“That’s something really, really extra at this tournament, with all the fans coming here, and what we heard from back home”. “They showed a bit of the real Icelandic attitude in the second half”. “If you look at the whole tournament, and to reach the quarter-finals, it’s been fantastic”. We weren’t using our brains, we didn’t play our normal way.
It was a totally dominating French performance as Olivier Giroud opened the scoring before Pogba added a second via a header from a corner, Payet scored a third with his weaker foot and Griezmann lobbed the goalie to make it four on the stroke of half-time. Taking nothing for granted, France kept the pressure levels high and struck again when Paul Pogba climbed above Jn Dadi Bdvarsson to head in an Antoine Griezmann corner.
In the 45th minute, Griezmann scored the fourth by himself, running onto the dummy from Giroud and lifting the ball over the advancing Halldorsson.
Iceland has only a population of 330,000 but Euro 2016 has put the country “on the map”, according to Arnor Ingvi Traustason.
That would prove to be his last touch as he was replaced by Andre-Pierre Gignac as Iceland rallied and Lloris made a super point-blank save to deny substitute Sverrir Iingi Ingason’s header.
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At any other major tournament, Wales’s fairytale journey to the semi-finals would’ve eclipsed all else, but Iceland’s run to the last eight has arguably been the story of the European Championships.
