France could make heavy weather of last-16 clash
France heads into their clash with Republic of Ireland on Sunday in Lyon as major favourites to make it to the quarter-finals of Euro 2016. However, their group stages victories were not plain sailing, despite Les Bleus having a number of star players in their squad.
Didier Deschamps’ side needed late goals to defeat the stubborn backlines of Romania and Albania. They also failed to find the target against Switzerland in the final group game, which in truth mattered little to Deschamps side in the end.
France will no doubt come up against an equally stubborn defence in Ireland’s, who will look to defend first and attempt to hit Les Bleus on the counter-attack.
France will once again look to West Ham star Dimitri Payet who has emerged as Les Bleus star player on home soil. Payet has scored twice and produced an assist in helping his national side top Group A as expected.
The likes of Olivier Giroud, Antoine Griezmann and Paul Pogba have experienced underwhelming campaigns so far, even if both Giroud and Griezmann got on the scoresheet in the group stages.
The Republic of Ireland represents a challenge to France, which they are unlikely to fear or shirk and are a spirited team, who are likely to take the physical approach in an attempt to unsettle the home team at the Stade de Lyon.
If France has any hope of going all the way at their own tournament then they need to be winning games this like this one in a comfortable manner. However, as they have shown in the group stages they are likely to make heavy weather of the last-16 clash and although they will be expected to make the last-8 they may just scrape through to the quarter-finals.
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