Switzerland’s midfielder Granit Xhaka celebrates with the fans after winning the UEFA EURO 2020 round of 16 football match between France and Switzerland at the National Arena in Bucharest on June 28, 2021. (Photo by MARKO DJURICA / POOL / AFP) (Photo by MARKO DJURICA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Switzerland put an end to France’s dream of Euro 2020 glory
France and Switzerland had a tough act to follow after an eight-goal thriller between Spain and Croatia. Fair to say the duo were up to the challenge.
Down 3-1, Switzerland were able to come back and pulled off the second upset of the tournament by knocking out France on penalties.
The Swiss took it to the French team and found themselves up 1-0 fifteen minutes into the game. Haris Seferović put Switzerland ahead thanks to some poor marking by Clement Lenglet.
Switzerland had a chance to double their lead ten minutes into the second half as VAR confirmed a foul and penalty committed by Benjamin Pavard. However, Hugo Lloris saved the penalty and kept France in the game.
In the 57th minute, Karim Benzema equalized. Two minutes later, the Real Madrid striker was in with a brace. In a span of about six minutes, the Swiss went from potentially being 2-0 up to now being down 2-1.
Things got worse when Paul Pogba scored an absolute belter to put the score 3-1 to seemingly put the game to bed.
Game over, right?
Not so fast as Switzerland had other ideas.
Almost as if they were taking a page out of Croatia’s playbook in the earlier match, Seferović pulled one back in 81st minute.
With twenty second left in regulation, Switzerland were on the counter. Granit Xhaka found an open Mario Gavranović who easily danced around Presnel Kimpembe and from just outside the penalty, struck his shot to the right of Lloris’ outstretched arm.
Neither team did any damage in the thirty minutes of extra time, which meant the game was to be decided on penalty kicks. Switzerland won the coin toss and opted to go first.
Switzerland converted all five of their penalties. In order for France to stay alive, they needed to make good on their fifth penalty kick. That responsibility fell to Kylian Mbappe. The PSG star stepped up but saw his penalty saved by Yann Sommer.
Just like that, France, one of the favorites to win Euro 2020 was out.
“Nobody can be annoyed with him,” France manager Didier Deschamps said. “When you take the responsibility, it can happen. He is obviously very affected by it.
“Kylian takes responsibility, he feels guilty, but he shouldn’t. The squad is united, it always has been.”
Source: The Guardian
The penalty miss put a cap on what has been a disappointing tournament for the 22-year-old. Aside from a disallowed goal and a controversial penalty, Mbappe was largely absent for France. Opposing defenses did well to stifle him and never gave him a chance to influence the game.
As for Switzerland, they never gave up hope and clawed back to even things up. It would have been easy to do so after the penalty miss and the almost immediate brace by Benzema right after.
“I always said this team deserved a lot more than you read,” Xhaka said. “There was so much discussion about this team, they even said we’re arrogant. But I can guarantee you one thing: we really wrote history tonight.
“All Swiss people, no matter who they are or where they live, all the players, we achieved something. It’s impossible to describe with words. We wrote history and we can be really proud.”
Source: The Guardian
This was the first time Switzerland beat France and the first time since 1954 that they reach the quarterfinal of a major tournament. The Swiss will be looking to pull off another upset as their next opponent is Spain.
