‘Germany are the best, but we will give it our all,’ says France coach Didier Deschamps after shattering Icelandic fairy tale at Euro 2016
Olivier Giroud produces his best performance as hosts reach semi-finals with 5-2 hammering of underdogs
France swept emphatically into the Euro 2016 semi-finals and brought Iceland’s fairy tale run to a crushing halt as Olivier Giroud scored twice in a 5-2 win on Sunday to set up a mouth-watering last-four clash with Germany.
Paul Pogba, Dimitri Payet and Antoine Griezmann were also on target in a one-sided romp at the Stade de France that proved a nightmare end to war-weary Iceland’s improbable Euro dreams.
Having fairly comfortably eased past England into the quarter-finals, Iceland, the smallest nation ever to have qualified for the European Championship, with a population of 330,000, were 4-0 down inside the first half.
They tried to rally after the break with a goal from Kolbeinn Sigthorsson, and added a late consolation through Birkir Bjarnason, but the damage had already been done.
France, who had not been past the quarter-finals since they won the tournament in 2000, eased off and cruised home and will no doubt feel they are warming up nicely ahead of Thursday’s semi-final against world champions Germany in Marseille.
“Germany are the best team, there is no doubt about that, even if Italy gave them a few scares. But we are there in the final four and we’ll give it our all,” said France coach Didier Deschamps.
