France Must Learn from Ireland Mistakes for Quarter-Final vs. Plucky Iceland
France and Iceland will meet at Stade de France on Sunday for the last of the 2016 UEFA European Championship quarter-finals, and by then, the other three semi-finalists will already be known.
The hosts are only just starting to find form after a slow start, while Lars Lagerback and Heimir Hallgrimsson’s men have been the surprise package of the tournament so far.
Could the Icelanders do the unthinkable this weekend and eliminate Didier Deschamps and his players from their own party?
TOP NEWS
Madrid Fines Players $590K 😲
'Mbappé Out' Petition Gaining Steam 😳
Star-Studded World Cup Ad 🤩
Judging by the performances of the 34th-ranked nation so far in France this summer, particularly in their round-of-16 win over England, a surprise victory over Les Bleus should not be ruled out.
Up until the two-time Euro winners’ second-half display against the Republic of Ireland, they had not really turned up on home soil.
However, Antoine Griezmann’s double highlighted an impressive second-half turnaround at Parc Olympique Lyonnais last week, and the feeling is that they have now found their feet.
Deschamps started against the Irish with a 4-3-3 formation and put Blaise Matuidi on the right side of central midfield, which enabled Paul Pogba to start in his preferred berth on the left side.
This tactical gamble did not work, and Deschamps was forced to make some alterations at half-time with his team 1-0 down to an early Robbie Brady penalty.
The 47-year-old tactician sent Kingsley Coman on for the booked N’Golo Kante—now suspended—and switched to a 4-2-3-1. To adapt to the altered shape, Pogba moved to a deeper role and Matuidi took up the left-sided central position.
In this system, the French were much more balanced and were able to overcome Ireland’s 1-0 lead to win 2-1. The way the hosts were playing towards the end of the match was the best football Les Bleus have played all tournament, and more of the same will be needed to beat Iceland.
As reported by the Associated Press (h/t ESPN FC), former France captain and current starting left-back Patrice Evra told his teammates in a press conference on Thursday that they must “wake up” if they are to beat the Icelanders in Paris this weekend.
The 35-year-old lamented his side’s slow start to matches so far at Euro 2016 and also confirmed that a lot of things were said at half-time against Martin O’Neill’s men, with Les Bleus staring down the barrel at an embarrassing potential early exit:
"We react instead of taking the initiative. I get the impression that we only play well when we have our backs to the wall. I hope we're going to start (the game) well and not wait until the second half before we step on the accelerator.
...
We should be telling ourselves that one day it won't come off for us, and that it might be against Iceland. We need things to be boiling up inside us—we need to wake up before the game.
...
I can't repeat exactly what was said (at half-time against Ireland). But we've had enough of just reacting. What you can't take away from us is that we keep going until the last second. But we can't rely on that.
"
Whatever was said at the break against Ireland, it certainly had the desired effect. What Deschamps must do now, though, is get the team playing the way they did for the second half of that game from the start against Iceland.
The roles of Griezmann and Olivier Giroud will be particularly important at Stade de France on Sunday.
If Coman is fit to feature from kick-off—he was substituted late on against Ireland with an injury—then the Atletico Madrid star will be able to start behind the Arsenal target man, and France will be more dangerous going forward.
Griezmann and Giroud combined extremely well in the second half against the Irish, and if the pair can replicate that sort of form, then Iceland—as resolute as they have been defensively so far—will struggle to keep the hosts out.
Out wide on the left is not the most ideal of positions for Dimitri Payet, but the West Ham United star has shone from that position already in this tournament and will be expected to do so again.
Assuming that the Griezmann-Giroud tandem works as it did against Ireland, there should be plenty of space for Payet to capitalise upon as the Icelanders struggle to keep the French out at the back.
If Pogba starts in the same deep-lying role he finished in last weekend in Lyon, with Matuidi in the left central role, then Deschamps’ men will be more balanced in the middle.
The biggest concern for the 1998 FIFA World Cup- and 2000 UEFA Euro-winning former captain pre-match is the suspension of Adil Rami. With the Sevilla man banned, Samuel Umtiti is expected to make his senior international debut.
Deschamps is already fielding what cannot be considered his first-choice defence because of the absences of Raphael Varane and Mamadou Sakho, so losing Rami to two yellow cards has been less than ideal.
Umtiti is an excellent defender and will work well alongside Laurent Koscielny, but the only problem is that the Olympique Lyonnais youngster has no international experience. How he reacts to his first taste of Euro 2016 in a quarter-final will define how solid France will be at the back.
Aside from that, though, it is a question of Deschamps learning his lesson from the Ireland match.
If Les Bleus start against Iceland more or less the way they finished against the Irish, then they should advance to the semi-finals.
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
