Late goals have been a feature at this year’s tournament, and the host nation is no stranger to scoring late goals meaning a full 90-minute, resolute defensive display is needed by the less-fancied Icelandic team.
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The demise of Hodgson’s team in Nice has at least served as a warning for Les Bleus. I think we have a trend in this tournament, in that some teams are very well organised and several of them are still in the tournament. Why didn’t the English go through? They’ve got a good squad, good players and a tough togetherness. “If we have that attitude we can cause them some problems”.
“I think you can agree with me that we have been playing better and better throughout the competition, and I think you can agree with me that our best game is still to come”.
“They have a very good change of pace and are quick”. They twice beat Holland, they beat the Czechs and finished top of their group. “They deserve to be where they are”.
“Anything can happen, but we’ve been warned about them”.
Deschamps joined Lloris in stressing that Iceland were not to be underestimated despite boasting a population of just 330,000. “It was a shock for the country because England are England”, he said.
The major finals debutants triumphed 2-1 at the same venue against Austria to seal second place in Group F and went on to stun England in the round of 16. If not, the French defence will need to show far more resolve on set pieces than England did. We play according to that identity, so maybe we have an advantage a little bit in that area. But obviously when there’s a lot of expectation you have to accept it.
Veteran co-coach Lars Lagerback, who will leave his role after the tournament, recalled a memory from his first visit to England back in the 1970s.
When asked about weaknesses in the French game, Lagerback said he thought the style of play could perhaps be exploited by his team.
“We reminded them that we have gone through four really good games but we still have a fifth game coming up”. “You can see that it’s been hard for everyone at this Euros, except for Germany”. “Everything wasn’t ideal, we lacked consistency and were not aggressive enough in the early stages of our games”.
The Icelandic team quickly regathered their composure to equalise just a few minutes later through Ragnar Sigurdsson before Kolbeinn Sigthorsson scored what turned out to be the victor in the 18th minute. Let us know by dropping a comment below via our Facebook comment box. Perhaps that’s holding us back. We had to play two years of friendlies which wasn’t easy, and now we have a positive form of pressure.
Lloris highlighted the fact that cohesive team performances have by and large trumped any individual brilliance at Euro 2016, with the continent’s smaller nations leaving their mark on the tournament. “We have to use that”. “We have players who play in big clubs, a lot of them are playing in the Champions League, so we have to start games better and impose ourselves from the outset”, Sagna said.
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“We play simple if that is what you call playing to our strengths”, Hallgrimsson said.
