France faced Germany on Thursday, July 7, at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseilles for the right to play Portugal in Sunday’s (July 10) Euro 2016 final in Paris.
After a good start where France’s Antoine Griezmann cut in from the left corner of the penalty box past three German defenders before placing the ball into the bottom right hand corner of the net where goalkeeper Manuel Neuer saved low to his left, Germany dominated possession and penned France back into their own half of the pitch.
However, despite nearly 70 percent possession, Germany failed to create many clear cut chances apart from a 13th minute save by goalkeeper Hugo Lloris from Emre Can, and struggled to break down a massed French defense.
Despite winning the ball back on numerous occasions, France, either through tiredness or carelessness, immediately lost the ball back to the Germans on most, if not all, occasions.
With the game looking to head to the half time interval goalless, France were awarded a right wing corner in the 45th minute, where the delivery to the edge of the 6 yard box saw Bastian Schweinsteiger lose the person he was marking, and in a rushed effort to make up ground and challenge France’s Patrice Evra, saw the ball strike his arm resulting in the referee awarding a penalty and showing a yellow card to Schweinsteiger.
Griezmann stepped up and drove the penalty kick high into the left hand corner of the net in the 47th minute for a 1-nil half time lead. Given the timing, one wondered whether the same decision would have been awarded should the incident have occurred in the opposing penalty box.
There were no team changes at half time, though it was discovered that Germany’s Mezut Ozil had also been shown a yellow card following the penalty’s award.
The same pattern of German possession but little goalmouth incident prevailed in the second half as the Germans sought to breach the massed defensive French ranks, and play became slightly scrappy. Oliver Giroud had a couple of chances for France when the German’s were stretched going forward seeking an equaliser and France broke forward quickly, but spurned one chance by waiting too long before either shooting or playing in Griezmann and being tackled, and saw the other blocked. However, another French attack in the 73rd minute saw a ball into the German box scuffed rather than cleared by full back Kimmich before falling to Pogba who proceeded to outwit the defender and cross to the edge of the 6 yard box from the left edge of the penalty box.
When the cross arrived in the middle of the edge of the 6 yard box, German goalkeeper Neuer clawed for the ball under pressure, but pushed it out to where the on rushing Griezmann could slide the ball back past him into the centre of the net.
Although Germany continued to press and drew a good save from goalkeeper Lloris in injury time, with a follow up header going wide, France held on to secure a home final with a 2-nil win.
France will head into Sunday’s final as favorites but, with the majority of the games in these finals generally revolving around the better side confronted with an opposition packing their defence and squeezing available space, Portugal will still pose a threat.
Allan Jackson has been involved in soccer for more than 40 years as a player, referee, administrator, and freelance writer.
