Switzerland’s Remarkable Triumph: Outscoring France in EURO 2020 Penalties

EURO 2020 will forever be remembered for its memorable moments, including Portugal’s unexpected exit in the Round of 16, Gianluigi Donnarumma’s outstanding goalkeeping, and the unwavering confidence of England fans. However, the most shocking event of the tournament was undoubtedly Switzerland’s dramatic victory over France in the Round of 16. This match left fans stunned as Switzerland displayed incredible resilience, ultimately knocking out the reigning 2018 FIFA World Cup champions. France’s defeat was seen as a major embarrassment and now Let’s look at how the complete match panned out for the football fans.

EURO 2020: Switzerland vs France in Round of 16s

In the EURO 2020, Switzerland was placed in Group A and finished at the third position to qualify for the Round of 16s while on the other hand, France came out as the winners of Group F and hence qualified for the Knockouts stage. In the Round of 16s, Switzerland and France played against each other on 28th June 2021 at the Arena Na?ional?, Bucharest to determine which team goes to the Quarter-Finals. The match started with France having the ball possession for the most minutes along with creating chances to score a goal at the start. 

First-Half of the Match

In the match’s early stages, France looked to attack down the left flank through Kylian Mbappe, but Switzerland’s defender Elvedi did well to contain the young forward’s threat. However, Switzerland didn’t sit back and defend, as they looked to break forward and cause problems for the French defence, who appeared unsettled at times when Switzerland countered. 

One such instance saw Embolo use his strength to shrug off Varane’s challenge and win a corner for Switzerland, though France comfortably dealt with the set-piece. Switzerland’s defensive discipline was also evident when they denied Benzema a shooting opportunity after the striker had controlled Griezmann’s cross well inside the box. 

Finally, in the 15th minute of the game, Switzerland’s players got a chance to score a goal as Zuber sent a good cross from the left side. Seferovic jumped highest and headed the ball strongly. His header went down, beating Lloris who dived for it. The ball went into the net at the far corner. It was a well-taken-headed goal by Seferovic. Switzerland scored first against the champions France. With the lead, Switzerland got a defensive approach and it was now France who started attacking to level the score. 

France struggled to create clear chances despite their attacking talent. Switzerland looked solid defensively and dangerous on the counter-attack. Seferovic scored with a powerful header from Zuber’s left-wing cross, giving Switzerland a shock lead against the world champions. France had a few half-chances, with Mbappe firing high and Rabiot shooting off-target from long range. Varane and Elvedi were booked for fouls. There was a brief cooling break midway through the half.

Switzerland remained compact, allowing France little space in the final third. The Swiss looked lively going forward, troubling France’s backline with their movement and approach play around the box. Overall, it was an underwhelming first-half display from France, who trailed 1-0 against a well-organized and purposeful Switzerland side at the break.

Second-Half of the Match

At the start of the second half, both the teams went unchanged and hence started off well as France again started creating chances. Coming to the 50th minute, Switzerland almost scored a goal and was about to double the lead but Haris Seferovic failed to gather the ball well and hence it was counted as a missed chance. But in the 53rd minute, Switzerland was again back in the attack as Steven Zuber suffered a sliding tackle by Benjamin Pavard in the box and hence Switzerland was awarded a penalty.

For the penalty, Ricardo Rodriguez took the challenge on himself to double the lead here but it was Hugo Lloris who dived to his right and saved the penalty to set the score 1-0 and keep France in the game. Just like this, the 57th minute saw an opportunity for the France team as Benzema got a pass from Mbappe who controlled the ball well and finally equalled the scoreline to 1-1 which opened the match well for both teams out there.

Just after 2 minutes of scoring a goal in the match, the 59th minute again saw France’s team creating an attack to double the lead, Griezmann was given an amazing pass who passed the ball to Benzema. The pass went on smoothly to allow Benzema to have a header who scored the second goal of the match and brought France into the game who felt that they had got the game in their pocket. In just the last 10 minutes, France changed the condition of the whole match. For most of the game, Switzerland had been the better team. But in these ten minutes, the world-class French players showed their quality. Benzema took his chances well to score twice and give France an unexpected lead.

With the match going in the favour of France, the 75th minute of the game again gave France an opportunity to just seal the game. Benzema was in the box with the ball and shot it towards the goal but was somehow deflected and went to Pogba who got a direct shot to the goal and managed to evade the goalkeeper to give the team a lead of 3-1 to France. For the Switzerland fans, it looked almost the end of the match but it was the 81st minute when Mbabu made an amazing pass to Seferovic who managed his jump at the right time and brought the scoreline to 3-2 with still 9 minutes to go.

After this goal in the 81st minute, the Switzerland team looked to attack with more intensity, and as the match went to the 90th minute, Mario Gavranovi? finally scored the equalizer by getting a long run which finally took the scoreline 3-3 at the end of the match. With both teams not able to get the lead, the official took the match to extra time, and hence the fans expected to get the result there.

Extra Time of the Match

After 90 minutes of intense action, the score was still level at 3-3, so the match went to extra time to decide the winner. The drama continued in extra time, with both sides having chances to find a winning goal. In the first period of extra time, France made a substitution, bringing on Giroud for Benzema. The French team put the Swiss defence under pressure, with Pavard’s shot being pushed over by Sommer. There was a VAR check for a possible Swiss penalty after a corner, but no spot-kick was awarded.

Switzerland also threatened, with Mbabu making a dangerous run down the left and putting in a low cross that nobody could meet. Coman had to go off injured for France after appearing to pull his hamstring, with Thuram replacing him. Mbappe missed a great chance from close range, firing wide of Sommer’s near post. The second period started with Switzerland making a change, Schar coming on for Seferovic. France kept probing, with Giroud and Mbappe trying to combine in the Swiss box. Akanji was booked for a late foul on Pogba. Coman, still on the pitch despite his injury scare, teed up Mbappe, but his shot was tame.  

Mbappe then played in Sissoko, who blazed a wild volley off-target. Sommer denied Giroud’s header from a cross as the chances kept coming. Xhaka fired a free-kick well over in the dying minutes as both teams pushed for a winner to avoid penalties. But neither side could find a breakthrough, so the gripping contest went to a shootout after an enthralling 120 minutes packed with chances, injuries, substitutions, and non-stop action at both ends. It was a pulsating game that deserved to have a winner from open play, but spot-kicks would decide the outcome.

Penalty Shoot-Outs

As the 120 minutes of the match ended, both the teams started preparing for the Penalty Shoot-outs and gave the list of the players to the official. It went as follows:

With Yann Sommer, the goalkeeper of the Switzerland team saving the penalty against Kylian Mbappé, the whole Switzerland team celebrated well. For the fans and the team, it was a moment of absolute joy as they knocked out one of the contenders of the EURO Cup 2020 and got a spot in the Quarter-Finals of the tournament. Defeating France even after being 3-1 down in the 75th minute of the game, Switzerland’s team got their confidence boosted for the next match.