It was an enchanting tournament debut by Iceland, drawing against Poland before eliminating England – an achievement that will be remembered along with the feats of the new European champion, to be crowned back at the Stade de France next Sunday. It wasn’t fair on either side, but the fact was that to lose this match would have consigned this French generation to eternal footballing disgrace.
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All week the warning emanating from inside the French camp had been about shaking off a propensity to start slowly.
“They are the world champions and favourites”.
Didier Deschamps and his men are totally aware that Iceland’s success so far in the tournament is no fluke.
“We don’t do everything perfectly – although we did a lot well tonight – and commit to everything”. One of the newspapers over here suggested that France were going to achieve revenge for the Queen of England for embarrassing her nation in the last round, which bemused me rather.
He had begun the tournament – and the Ireland match – with a three-man midfield of Kante, Pogba and Matuidi and a three-man forward line.
Giroud let a Laurent Koscielny pass down the centre run through his legs and drift into the path of Griezmann.
He could well have had a hat-trick but was brought off after his second goal because he has a yellow card hanging over him and could not risk a second booking and a suspension.
He chose to take the latter option. On two occasions Cristiano Ronaldo almost exploited the space behind the back four in Iceland’s 1-1 draw with Portugal and it was a simple ball over the top that led to the foul on Raheem Sterling that brought England a penalty in the round of 16.
His goal owed everything to the timing of a run behind Kari Arnason to reach Blaise Matuidi’s clipped pass over Iceland’s back-peddling rearguard. The second a far-post header from a corner. Griezmann was once again the provider as he passed the ball to the West Ham from inside the box and after a bit of trickery to move the ball into his left foot, Payet unleashed a low shot into the bottom left corner to put his name on the scoresheet.
A deep Sigurdsson free-kick forced Lloris into an unorthodox stop but France were looking comfortable and showed a cutting edge lacking in their previous Euro 2016 matches.
Iceland were struggling defensively though and conceded a second in the 19th minute when Griezmann delivered a unsafe corner into the box and a towering Pogba header found the back of the net from close range. France lead 3-0.
– A devastating opening 45 minutes paved the way for France to become the first team to score four goals in the first half of a European Championship finals match.
But they finally came unstuck against a France side that appears to be clicking into top gear at just the right time and will be confident of a second Euro success on home soil after their triumph in 1984.
He added: “They had a few problems against Italy but Germany are Germany”.
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Iceland then had a great chance to reduce the advantage, but Jon Bodvarsson could only fire over from six yards out. The World No. 34 side continued with the same side that they fielded in every match in the tournament after captain and long-throw specialist Aron Gunnarsson, who was suffering from a back problem, was passed fit.
