European Football Championship 2016 / France

This article covers the French national team at the 2016 European Football Championship . France's men took part in a European Championship finals for the ninth time, the third time after 1960 and 1984 as the host of the tournament. As hosts, the French were automatically qualified to participate. The Bleus became vice European champions in 2016.

preparation

The regional association FFF had concluded four game agreements in preparation for the European Championship finals. There was initially an away game against the Netherlands at the end of March 2016 ; four days later France received Russia and won both games (3-2 and 4-2 respectively).

In the immediate run-up to the tournament there were meetings with Cameroon (May 30th in Nantes ) and Scotland (June 4th in Metz ) on the program, which the French also won (3-2 and 3-0 respectively).

Between the Cameroon and Scotland games, the team traveled to Neustift in the Stubai Valley for a recreational stay . There, the team council (Lloris, Matuidi, Mandanda and Evra) negotiated the bonus scheme for the EM with FFF President Noël Le Graët . It is strongly success-related: players and coaches will only receive payments from the quarter-finals, namely 165,000 euros each if they do not survive the round of the last eight, 210,000 for a lost or 250,000 for a semi-final won and 300,000 euros if they win the title. In addition, each player, regardless of how far their eleven got at the European Championship, per game in which they belonged to the squad, 15,000 euros for the transfer of their personal image rights (“photo bonus”); this also includes the ten friendlies of the 2015/16 season that preceded the final tournament, so that up to 255,000 euros are added when the final is reached. Even the reservists (see the squad section below) and the players who have been canceled due to injury will not go away empty-handed if the Bleus survive the round of 16; they will receive around 45,000 euros per person if the 2016 European champion is France.

Contingent

National coach Didier Deschamps announced a list of 31 players on May 12, 2016; He has already differentiated in that he has identified eight of them as possible successors (réservistes). Two years earlier, too, he had committed to the final 23-man squad very early on at the World Cup in Brazil . On May 31, he had to replace Lassana Diarra with Morgan Schneiderlin due to injury .

No.	Surname	society	Date of birth	Games	Gates	Last use	EMSp.		Min.		0(a)0	00	00
goalkeeper
23	Benoît Costil	Rennes stadium	03rd July 1987	0	0
01	Hugo Lloris	Tottenham Hotspur	Dec. 26, 1986	75	0	06/04/2016	4 (2012)	7th	660
16	Steve Mandanda	Olympique Marseille	28 Mar 1985	22nd	0	03/25/2016
Defense
17th	Lucas Digne	AS Roma	July 20, 1993	12	0	03/29/2016
03	Patrice Evra	Juventus Turin	May 15, 1981	73	0	06/04/2016	2 (2008), 1 (2012)	7th	660		1
02	Christophe Jallet	Olympique Lyon	Oct. 31, 1983	11	1	03/25/2016
21st	Laurent Koscielny	Arsenal FC	Sep 10 1985	29	1	06/04/2016	1 (2012)	7th	642		(1) 1
13	Eliaquim Mangala	Manchester City	Feb 13, 1991	7th	0	10/11/2015		1	18th
04th	Adil Rami	Sevilla FC	Dec. 27, 1985	28	1	06/04/2016	4 (2012)	4th	360		(2)
19th	Bacary Sagna	Manchester City	Feb. 14, 1983	57	0	06/04/2016		7th	660
22nd	Samuel Umtiti	Olympique Lyon	Nov 14, 1993	0	0			3	300		(1) 1
midfield
06th	Yohan Cabaye	Crystal Palace FC	Jan. 14, 1986	46	4th	06/04/2016	3 (2012)	2	91
05	N'Golo Kanté	Leicester City	29 Mar 1991	4th	1	06/04/2016		4th	244		(2) 1
14th	Blaise Matuidi	Paris Saint-Germain	0Apr 9, 1987	44	8th	06/04/2016		7th	583		1
15th	Paul Pogba	Juventus Turin	15th Mar 1993	31	5	06/04/2016		7th	602	1	1
12	Morgan Schneiderlin	Manchester United	0Nov 8, 1989	15th	0	11/17/2015
18th	Moussa Sissoko	Newcastle United	Aug 16, 1989	38	1	06/04/2016		6th	382
attack
20th	Kingsley Coman	FC Bayern Munich	June 13, 1996	5	1	06/04/2016		6th	272
10	André-Pierre Gignac	UANL Tigres	0Dec 5, 1985	27	7th	06/04/2016		6th	204
09	Olivier Giroud	Arsenal FC	Sep 30 1986	49	17th	06/04/2016	3 (2012)	6th	456	3	(1)
07th	Antoine Griezmann	Atlético Madrid	21 Mar 1991	27	7th	06/04/2016		7th	555	6th
11	Anthony Martial	Manchester United	0Dec 5, 1995	9	0	06/04/2016		3	68
08th	Dimitri Payet	West Ham United	29 Mar 1987	19th	3	06/04/2016		7th	506	3
Trainer
	Didier Deschamps		Oct 15, 1968	103	4th	2012		3 (1992), 4 (1996), 6 (2000)
Reserve (overview of possible successors)
	Alphonse Aréola	Villarreal CF	Feb. 27, 1993	0	0
	Hatem Ben Arfa	OGC Nice	07th Mar 1987	15th	2	11/17/2015	2 (2012)
	Kevin Gameiro	Sevilla FC	0Apr 9, 1987	8th	1	11/11/2011
	Alexandre Lacazette	Olympique Lyon	May 28, 1991	10	1	10/11/2015
	Adrien Rabiot	Paris Saint-Germain	0Apr 3, 1995	0	0
	Djibril Sidibé	Lille OSC	July 29, 1992	0	0

^(a) In brackets: yellow cards from the first phase of the tournament, which were not taken into account after the quarter-finals.

Players who were only in the preliminary roster

In mid-May 2016, Raphaël Varane was diagnosed with a thigh injury. He was replaced by Adil Rami . On May 28, 2016, Jérémy Mathieu was replaced by Samuel Umtiti , as Mathieu was unable to fit in time due to an injury.

position	Surname	society	Date of birth	International matches	Länderspiel- gates	Last use	EM games
Defense	Jérémy Mathieu	FC Barcelona	Oct 29, 1983	5	0	03/29/2016
Defense	Raphael Varane	real Madrid	Apr 25, 1993	29	2	03/29/2016
midfield	Lassana Diarra	Olympique Marseille	10 Mar 1985	34	0	05/30/2016

Remarks:

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} as of June 4, 2016
2. ↑ Status: Before the start of the European Championship finals
3. ↑ ^{a b c} As a player

French team games

Neustift in the Stubai Valley Lille Paris Marseille Lyon Clairefontaine Biarritz

Venues (black), quarters (blue), training camps (green) Large map: France Small map: Austria

Group stage

In the EM group stage France met Romania (EM opening match), Albania and Switzerland .

The Swiss are among the most frequent opponents in French international history (37 encounters so far, the last being a 5-2 win at the 2014 World Cup ); France has met the Romanians 16 times and Albania six times. Against all three, the balance of the Bleus is positive.

However, at the time of the group draw, the French were only 25th in the FIFA world rankings . Expectations regarding their performance in their own country were correspondingly skeptical. The trade journal France Football published a survey in December 2015, according to which 10% of those questioned assumed that the national team would be eliminated after the group stage, while only 9% believed it could reach the final and 5% would win the title. The magazine headed its corresponding thematic focus with the statement "Equipe de France: Ten years full of misfortunes". Only after the successful test matches did the mood in France improve; immediately before the start of the tournament, the team was even listed as one of the hottest title contenders by the local bookmakers .

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	France	3	2	1	0	004: 100	+3	07th
2.	Switzerland	3	1	2	0	002: 100	+1	05
3.	Albania	3	1	0	2	001: 300	−2	03
4th	Romania	3	0	1	2	002: 400	−2	01

Friday 10 June 2016 at 9:00 p.m. in Saint-Denis
France	-	Romania	2: 1 (0: 0)
Wed., June 15, 2016, at 9:00 p.m. in Marseille
France	-	Albania	2: 0 (0: 0)
Sun., June 19, 2016, at 9:00 p.m. in Villeneuve-d'Ascq ( Lille )
Switzerland	-	France	0-0

In these three encounters Deschamps had in defense consistently on goalkeeper Lloris and the back four with Sagna, Rami, Koscielny and Evra - instead of which the specialist press against Switzerland unsuccessfully demanded the use of Digne; this defensive formation did not allow an opposing goal except for one penalty. A core line-up also emerged in midfield and attack, which the coach of course changed a lot in the last group game, especially because the French were already qualified and also to give some players a break before the knockout round. It turned out that France has a high quality "second suit" (Cabaye, Sissoko, Coman, Gignac), which was able to adequately complement the line of Pogba – Kanté – Matuidi and Griezmann – Giroud – Payet.

After the group games were over, Dimitri Payet was the outstanding French player for the French media and UEFA, which had awarded him Player of the Match against Romania and Albania, respectively ; For example, France Football's front page read “Payet, A Gift from Heaven” and the front page was titled “The First Euro Star”.
The international press, on the other hand, turned their attention to Paul Pogba, especially after the Switzerland game, which Le Monde summarized under the headline "Pogba, the only French sunbeam". Antoine Griezmann, on the other hand, now more often called Grizou in France , only became a topic of international media interest in the knockout round.

Round of 16

France has a positive international record against Ireland . Both teams met six times in a World Cup qualification between 1954 and 2010, but never in the finals of a continental tournament.

Sun., June 26th 2016, at 3 p.m. in Décines-Charpieu ( Lyon )
France	-	Ireland	2: 1 (0: 1)

France started the game with the same starting line-up as in the opening match against Romania, i.e. the starting eleven mentioned in the section above. After falling behind after two minutes - again due to a penalty kick caused by Pogba this time - Deschamps changed the tactical direction for the second half. Defensive man Kanté, who is suspended in the quarter-finals due to his second yellow card, has been replaced by another offensive winger, Coman. In addition, Matuidi then moved from the right side, where he "almost did not exist", back into central midfield. It was Griezmann who ensured the French advance with two goals within three minutes. A red-marked foul by Irishman Shane Duffy on the double goalscorer, who was approaching Ireland's goalkeeper alone, prevented the Bleus from a higher victory, as did a crossbar hit by Gignac. Rami will also be absent from the quarter-finals due to his second yellow card.

Quarter finals

The international match record is also positive against Iceland , with the French having won eight out of a total of eleven games and drew three times, so they are still unbeaten. Competitive matches only include qualifying matches, namely for one world (1958) and four European championship finals (1976, 1988, 1992, 2000). In France, it is seen as a good omen that UEFA has appointed the Dutchman Björn Kuipers as referee for this match : Kuipers has led Bleus games in the two previous continental tournaments, which both ended victoriously - the 2-0 win against hosts Ukraine at the EM 2012 and the 5: 2 against Switzerland at the 2014 World Cup.

Sunday 3 July 2016 at 9:00 p.m. in Saint-Denis
France	-	Iceland	5: 2 (4: 0)

Deschamps reacted surprisingly to the suspensions of Rami and Kanté by helping Samuel Umtiti to make his international debut in central defense and placing Moussa Sissoko in the right midfield instead of replacing Kanté with Cabaye. For example, France played again in the 4-2-3-1 system that had already been believed to have been abandoned , and this was filled with life early on against Iceland because the team sought to score from the start: 2-0 after twenty minutes, 4-0 at halftime . And even when they slowed down a gear in the second half and gave the opponent more possession of the ball, the French were able to react promptly to the Icelandic consolation goal and to restore the 4-goal advantage within a very short time. The coach then took the two-time goalscorer Giroud and a little later also Koscielny off the field in order to be able to have both players with yellows in the semifinals.

Kicker Sportmagazin rated Griezmann and Giroud with a one, Pogba, Matuidi and Payet with a two and goalkeeper Lloris with a 2.5. Only Evra and Novize Umtiti were rated four.

Semifinals

Against the reigning world champion, the overall balance with twelve wins (including the last game in November 2015), six draws and nine defeats is also positive. In continental tournaments, however - so far these have only been World Cup finals - the Germans usually had the better end to themselves and prevailed in three of the four meetings: In the 1982 World Cup semifinals, the " Night of Seville ", on penalties, four years later, again in the semi-finals, with 2-0 and in 2014 in the round of the last eight with 1-0. France won the game for third place at the 1958 World Cup with a clear 6: 3.

Thursday 7 July 2016 at 9:00 p.m. in Marseille
France	-	Germany	2: 0 (1: 0)

Although Kanté (who replaced Deschamps at least in the final stages) and Rami were available again, France began with the same formation as in the Iceland game. This step turned out to be the right one, because both Umtiti and Sissoko improved significantly compared to the quarter-finals. It was then up to Antoine Griezmann with his tournament hits five and six to refute the statistical legend of the German invincibility by the respective final hosts. However, the match was much closer than the end result would suggest. Thanks to a very committed defensive performance of all parts of the team over the entire season, a brilliant goalkeeper Lloris and the notorious German weakness in this tournament, the French final was no longer in danger.

Endgame

Of 24 encounters with the Portuguese , the Bleus have won 18 (including the last meeting in September 2015 in Lisbon ) and only lost five, most recently in 1975. In France's European championship titles in 1984 and 2000, the two teams met in the semi-finals, with the final result being 3 : 2 or 2: 1 - each after extra time - was. The semi-finals of the 2006 World Cup had a similar outcome (1-0 after 90 minutes).

Sunday 10 July 2016 at 9:00 p.m. in Saint-Denis
France	-	Portugal	0: 1 a.d. (0: 0)

Lloris Sagna Rami (Umtiti) Koscielny Evra Matuidi Sissoko (Kanté) Pogba Payet Griezmann Giroud The tournament team

France played the final with the same starting line-up as the previous two games. And the game against Portugal represented a blueprint of the semi-final against Germany in terms of the course of the game - but with the opposite sign. The Bleus dominated for long stretches and barely left an opposing chance until the 80th minute. At the same time they created a large number of scoring opportunities in attack, which were destroyed in particular by the Lusitan goalkeeper Rui Patrício , so several times against the this time outstanding Sissoko, but also with shots and headers by Griezmann, Giroud and Payet. The substitute Gignac also failed in the penultimate minute of regular time at the goal post. The longer the game lasted, the less convincing the French game, and in overtime Portugal, which also recorded a beam hit, a very precise and sharp shot by Éder was enough to destroy the dream of France's third European title.

Even if Deschamps used 18 of his players and changed the game system during the course of the tournament, a regular eleven (see next) emerged in which only one of the midfield positions between Sissoko and Kanté was contested. In addition, Rami had lost his place in central defense to Umtiti for the last few games. Gignac and Coman, who came to six appearances each, were mostly substituted (five or four times) and were on the field for 204 and 272 minutes respectively.

Antoine Griezmann was not only awarded the Golden Shoe by UEFA as by far the most successful goalscorer at this European Championship , but also voted the best player of the tournament. In addition to Griezmann, there is also Dimitri Payet in the “EM 2016 team”. Olivier Giroud eventually became the tournament's third top scorer, one place ahead of Payet.

The national team climbed from 17th to seventh place in the FIFA world rankings due to their performance .

Rating of the players

France Football assessed the performances shown by the French squad members and included their future prospects, for example with regard to the 2018 World Cup , as an additional criterion . The trade journal did not, as usual, give grades from one to ten, but rather classified the 23 players in seven “quality levels” and justified this in a personal laudation . In the highest level there are Lloris, Griezmann and Sissoko, on the second level Matuidi and Koscielny, on the third level Kanté, Umtiti, Giroud and Payet. Pogba and Martial form the fourth level, Rami and Coman the fifth. For Evra, Jallet, Gignac and Sagna, the editors no longer see any prospects in the blue dress.

Notes and evidence

1. ↑ Article “Grosse polémique et petites bestioles” in France Football of June 7, 2016, p. 48/49, on the “Photo bonus” France Football of June 28, 2016, p. 39
2. ↑ see the French national team on the association's website.
3. ↑ "Schneiderlin replaces Diarra in the France squad" , uefa.com
4. ^ "Gignac aura le numéro 10" , lefigaro.fr
5. ↑ "Varane misses the premier league final and EURO," uefa.com
6. ^ "Mathieu forfait, Umtiti dans les 23" , fff.fr
7. ↑ France Football of December 9, 2015, pp. 20-29; Survey results on p. 25
8. ↑ France Football of June 14, 2016, pp. 1 and 22–31
9. ↑ see the article from June 20, 2016 at lemonde.fr
10. ↑ for example according to the article " Antoine Griezmann, version international " from July 2, 2016 at francefootball.fr
11. ↑ France – Irlande, le debrief de France Football from June 27, 2016 at francefootball.fr
12. ↑ Kicker scores according to the article "5: 2 -" Les Bleus "end Icelandic fairy tale" from July 3, 2016 at kicker.de
13. ↑ see the game analyzes and player ratings at kicker.de and lequipe.fr ( individual ratings )
14. ↑ Article “ A Moussa Sissoko was not enough ” from July 11, 2016 at francefootball.fr; similar in the game analysis of July 10, 2016 at kicker.de.
15. ↑ Minutes used according to the information on the official tournament website
16. ↑ Article Antoine Griezmann is the player of the tournament from July 11, 2016 at uefa.com
17. ↑ Article Griezmann wins the Golden Boot from July 10, 2016 at uefa.com
18. ↑ see the final FF bulletin of July 11, 2016 on francefootball.fr