Host France achieved a late 2-1 opening win in the European Championship opening game. Just a few minutes after kick-off, Bogdan Stancu could have put Romania in the lead, but shot Hugo Lloris on the goal line. Ten minutes later, Antoine Griezmann headed the ball into the Romanian post. The first half gave the French more opportunities to take the lead, but the Romanian defensive bloc held out. In the second half, Stancu missed another squat in the 48th minute, until Olivier Giroud finally managed to take France 1-0 with a header from a cross. Stancu equalized this deficit a little later with a penalty after his compatriot Stanciu was brought down by Evra in the penalty area. After that deficit, the Équipe Tricolore put pressure on but failed to complete, and it was only shortly before the end that Dimitri Payet managed to put a long shot in the Romanian goal and secure the French victory.
Switzerland took the lead after just a few minutes when Fabian Schär headed in after a corner struck by Xherdan Shaqiri and a goalkeeping error by Etrit Berisha. After this early deficit, the Albanians tried to maintain their compactness and thus gave Switzerland more scoring chances, but they remained unused. After the yellow-red card for Albania's captain Lorik Cana, the Swiss missed the game and at times gave the Albanians a lot of freedom. Switzerland dominated the second half almost without exception, but numerous big chances were lost or failed because of Albania goalkeeper Berisha. The final highlight was Shkelzen Gashi, who was substituted in the 82nd minute, when his shot was parried by Yann Sommer three minutes before the end of regular time and he secured the Swiss victory. The game was the first in European Championship history in which two brothers competed against each other; Taulant Xhaka, who played in left midfield on the Albanian side, and Granit Xhaka, who played in defensive midfield in Switzerland. They stood together on the field for 62 minutes until Taulant Xhaka was replaced.
The first few minutes of the game were marked by the Swiss offensive on the one hand and a defensive on the Romanian side. A turning point was marked by a penalty from Swiss captain Stephan Lichtsteiner to Alexandru Chipciu in the 17th minute, which Bogdan Stancu converted and opened up a promising phase of the game, especially for the Romanians. By the half-time whistle, however, both teams missed further opportunities. The second half was heralded by a scoring chance from substitute Ovidiu Hoban in the 46th minute and a near-own goal by Swiss defender Johan Djourou in the 52nd minute. Shortly afterwards, Admir Mehmedi managed to take the ball from a corner, put it in the goal and equalize for Switzerland. The Swiss then started a final offensive, but did not get another hit against the Romanians who had withdrawn into their own half and finally had to accept a point.
The French, who were set as favorites, initially controlled the game with a lot of possession, as they had considerable problems building up the game against the disciplined and offensive Albanians. Most of the game was balanced in terms of opportunities, but the other parts of the game predominated on the Albanian side. A Giroud header in the 35th minute and a blocked attempt by Lenjanis in the penalty area two minutes later were the best chances of the first half, in which Albania would have been able to lead. Right at the beginning of the second half of the game, the flow of the game changed: France showed offensive qualities, Coman, Giroud, Payet, Pogba and later Griezmann still gave away big chance after big chance. Only in the transition to the 90th minute did Adil Rami cross the ball into the Albanian penalty area, where it was picked up by Antoine Griezmann and headed into the lower left corner of the goal. Dimitri Payet finished with a 2-0 stoppage time.
Already in the 8th minute Johan Djourou, who was unable to place a ball brought into the penalty area by Xherdan Shaqiri from a corner and which Fabian Schär had extended with his head to the second post, gave the first offensive impulse of the game. Paul Pogba flicked the ball against the crossbar from 17 meters later, one minute later Yann Sommer prevented a goal and in the 17th minute Pogba put a 20-meter shot at the crossbar. After this "storm" the game of the French subsided somewhat and the Confederates got better into the game. The second round belonged first to the Swiss, who moved in the direction of the French penalty area, but did not act compellingly enough or came to a conclusion. France reciprocated Swiss efforts when Gignac and Griezmann checked Sommer and Payet shot a volley from Sissoko's cross to the crossbar in the 75th minute. Ultimately, Switzerland made it into the knockout round of a European Championship for the first time thanks to the point.
The Romanians started dominantly and tried in the first quarter of an hour with long-range shots to score a goal. In the 23rd minute, the Albanians showed their first move to the opposing goal: in a counterattack and teamwork between Lenjani, Sadiku and Memushaj, the former managed to stand in the center of the ball, but shot over the Romanian goal. The now more offensive Albanians missed more chances in the 35th and 36th minutes, the opening goal was scored by headed cross from Ledian Memushaj striker Armando Sadiku. Albania reduced themselves to counterattacking in the second half, were also compact in Romanian attacks and left them little room. After several missed Albanian opportunities to a 2-0, the minutes before substitute Romanian Andone only hit the crossbar from 16 meters, so that an equalization was not achieved until the end of the game. Romania was subsequently eliminated from the tournament, while Albania could still hope for the round of 16.
France
Switzerland
Albania
Romania
1: 0 Giroud (57th) 
Giroud (69.)
Cana (36.)
