Euro rumblings: France simply too much for Iceland

James Sharman joins Martine Gaillard to talk about France overcoming Iceland at Euro 2016.

With France’s 5-2 win over Iceland on Sunday at Euro 2016, we now have our semifinals set—a couple of predictable powerhouses on one side, and a couple of hit and hopers on the other side.

I like the sound of that: Wales and Portugal bring us some romance, while France and Germany provide the necessary oomph.

Here are my thoughts on Sunday’s game.

• Iceland might be the team that becomes the face of this tournament. Certainly, manager Lars Lagerback’s side has brought us more than a few of the defining moments. Going forward it will get more difficult for them. Up next is a challenging World Cup qualifying group that features Croatia, Turkey, Ukraine, Finland and new boys Kosovo, which might become the new Iceland. But if nothing else, Euro has opened the door to this tiny nation being considered a legitimate side.

• I wonder which of the Icelandic players will use their Euro experience to engineer moves to bigger clubs? Certainly the defensive stalwarts impressed more than most, but any clubs showing interest must realizes that this squad was very much the sum of its parts, a true team rather than top individuals.

• With Iceland starting the same 11 for all five matches at Euro, it did seem obvious that fatigue (both mental and physical) was a problem versus France. That impressive energy that caused so many problems for their other victims wasn’t quite there on Sunday, although their refusal to quit in the second half was an example of resiliency that certain other “top teams” could learn a lesson from and mimic.


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• Having said all that, the main reason Iceland’s wonderful run came to an end was because France is a wonderful side. This was by far France’s best performance at Euro. Finally they looked relaxed from the opening whistle.

• Nice to see the much criticized Olivier Giroud have a strong match. As well as his goals, his general hold up play was very good, and is such an underrated part of his game. That being said, if he goes scoreless against Germany, would anyone be surprised?

• Defensively there are still some major problems for France, although the return of N’Golo Kante will be absolutely key against Germany. Still, I predict a Germany win inside regulation time.

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