France have finally turned up at their own party. During the first four matches of their home competition, Didier Deschamps’ side looked a muddled, unconvincing outfit wracked with nerves.
The failure to convince against Romania, Albania, Switzerland and Republic of Ireland raised serious questions over their tag as pre-tournament favourites’. However, their magnificent 5-2 trouncing of Iceland in Paris shows just why they were so highly favoured – and their next opponents Germany will not like what they saw.
Cynics will argue that their victims were ‘only’ Iceland, but just ask the likes of Portugal, Austria and England how easy the side from the tiny island in the North Atlantic are to beat. Their opponents came into the fixture unbeaten in the Euros and under no pressure given that they had already drastically exceeded expectations by dumping out the Three Lions in the previous knockout round. Iceland fell behind early in that match due to a Wayne Rooney penalty, but Roy Hodgson’s men were instantly pegged back. France moved into a similarly prompt advantage, Olivier Giroud firing into the net following a pinpoint direct pass from Blaise Matuidi, but instead of allowing their concentration to wander, they successfully sought a second. Just as the opener was simple, so was the follow up; Antoine Griezmann’s corner was headed into the net by Paul Pogba, who achieved a hang time on his leap that NBA superstar LeBron James would have been proud of.
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