France VS Switzerland UEFA EURO LIVE Football Match Score 28 June 2021
The mighty French qualified less convincingly than initially expected after winning just one of three games in the toughest group of the Euro 2021 tournament. Left-back Lucas Hernandez had to be taken off with a knee injury during the last group game, a 2-2 draw with Portugal, and remains doubtful against Switzerland. His replacement Lucas Digne is also nursing a hamstring injury and looks unlikely to be fit for Monday, forcing potential changes to Deschamps’ defensive plans.
Digne’s replacement in the game against Portugal, midfielder Adrien Rabiot, has himself been dealing with a nagging ankle injury since the end of the season and is not yet at 100 per cent. To make matters worse, Thomas Lemar suffered a leg injury and Marcus Thuram hurt his right thigh in training on Thursday, hobbling off the pitch with the support of medical staff. France are already without Ousmane Dembélé after the forward had to be taken off injured in their second group game against Hungary. Dembélé has been ruled out for the rest of the tournament and will require knee surgery. Despite the injuries, France remain the clear favourites against the Swiss, who have never defeated them in a competitive game. While the French are very familiar with the latter stages of a tournament, Switzerland have not reached a quarter-final of a major tournament in 67 years, ever since the 1954 World Cup, which they hosted.
The resilient Hungarians – who won the hearts of the neutrals despite finishing bottom of the group – managed to take a point from their clash with France, while a record-equalling and record-breaking evening for Cristiano Ronaldo saw the five-time Ballon d’Or winner cancel out Karim Benzema’s own brace during a 2-2 draw on the final matchday.
A clean sweep in Group F was always going to be a pipe dream for France, but Deschamps nevertheless witnessed his side take top spot in the group to make the knockout stages for the third time in succession, although Hungary have proved that the world champions are far from the force they were in Russia three years ago.
With Kylian Mbappe still struggling to find his shooting boots amid persistent speculation surrounding his future, Deschamps would do well to get the best out of the Paris Saint-Germain attacker lest France risk an underwhelming finish at the Euros, although their last competitive defeat came over two years ago.
Les Bleus’ 2-2 draw with Portugal on June 23 did mark their 10th game unbeaten across all competitions since their shock friendly defeat to Finland last year, and while their favourites tag is still present, Switzerland have every right to believe that a surprise result could be theirs for the taking.
Match facts…
Head-to-head
- This will be the fifth meeting between France and Switzerland at a major competition (Euro 2004, 2006 World Cup, 2014 World Cup, Euro 2016), but the first in the knockout rounds. France are unbeaten in such matches (W2 D2), with the most recent game finishing goalless at Euro 2016.
France
- France have only lost one of their last 17 matches at Euros and World Cups combined (W12 D4) – the Euro 2016 final against Portugal.
- France haven’t lost a competitive match in over two years, with their last such defeat coming against Turkey in a European Championship qualifier in June 2019, winning 14 times and drawing five times since. France last went on a longer unbeaten run in competitive matches from 1994 to 1999, a 27-game run, with current manager Didier Deschamps playing in 21 of them.
- Antoine Griezmann has played in each of France’s last 51 matches, in a run that started on 31 August 2017 against the Netherlands – Griezmann is the only player to make more than 50 appearances for a European country since that date.
Switzerland
- Switzerland have reached the knockout stages at each of their last four major tournament appearances (2014 World Cup, Euro 2016, 2018 World Cup, Euro 2020) – they were eliminated in their first match following the group stages in each of those previous three instances.
- With a double against Turkey last time out, Shaqiri became Switzerland’s all-time top scorer in major tournaments (Euros & World Cup) with seven goals, overtaking Josef Hugi’s six. Shaqiri is Switzerland’s joint-top scorer in European Championship matches with three goals, tied with Hakan Yakin.
.
