French fans watch their side in a bar
Photo: Dan McCooey (Prost Amerika)
France secured their qualification for the Group stages of EURO 2016 with a 2-0 win over Albania in Marseilles. It was a narrow win with Antoine Griezmann heading in the go-ahead goal as late as the 89th minute. As he had had in their win over Romania, Dimitri Payet scored a second goal for les Bleus. In the group’s other game, Romania and Switzerland drew 1-1.
Those results left France atop the group on six points and certain of a top two finish. Romania will have to beat Albania in their final group game to retain any hope of qualifying.
French coach Didier Deschamps dropped Paul Pogba and Antoine Griezmann from his starting line up but the experiment failed in a first half, which finished goalless. Towards the end of the first half, Albania even had two decent chances with Ledian Memushaj firing a free kick just over. The Balkan minnows were on the attack as the half ended and France exited to a chorus of boos and whistles.
Pogba replaced Anthony Martial at half time and France threatened inside 35 seconds but Olivier Giroud could only get a shoulder rather than his head onto the ball. However it was Albania who nearly took the lead in 52 minutes when Memushaj connected a cross onto the post.
In the 68th minute, Deschamps added Griezmann into the mix. Giroud headed onto the post seconds later but would make little further impact. Andre-Pierre Gignac, a local player for Marseilles, replaced him to a great cheer with 14 minutes to go.
With a minute of normal time remaining, Griezmann rescued France when he scored the game’s only goal from an Adil Rami cross on the left, before Payet put icing on the gateau.
| GROUP A Table | P | Pts | GD |
| France | 2 | 6 | 3 |
| Switzerland | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| Romania | 2 | 1 | -1 |
| Albania | 2 | 0 | -3 |
ROMANIA 1 : 1 SWITZERLAND
Romania made four changes all in attack and midfield against an unchanged Switzerland at Parc des Princes.
Bogdan Stancu gave the Romanians the lead from the penalty spot after Juventus’ Stephan Lichsteiner had pulled Alex Chipciu’s shirt. It was Stancu’s second penalty of the tournament but replays showed it was the correct call from referee Sergei Karasev.
For the rest of the first half, Switzerland dominated but failed adequately test Ciprian Tătărușanu in the Romanian goal. Haris Seferovic looked more dangerous than the other big name in attack Stoke’s Xherdan Shaqiri.
12 minutes after half time, Admir Mehmedi showed terrific poise and balance to hammer in a left footed drive after a clearance from a set piece. Despite Swiss pressure and an appearance from highly fancied Swiss striker Breel Embolo, the score remained the same.
Romania have now failed to score from open play in three hours at Euro 2016.
In the day’s opening game, Slovakia beat Russia 2-1.
Also See:
[Video] Marc Serber: Stancu spot on as Romania deserve point v Switzerland
Slovaks storm back, defeat Russia
Euro2016
