The corner kick taken from the right to the far
post, drifted away from goal. Giroud was not tightly marked as he jumped above
his marker to jerk-knife the header past the goalkeeper and the covering defender.
The marking by the Swiss was bad and the challenge for the ball was token Moments
from the restart, Karim Benzema stole a Swiss ball in midfield, charged towards
goal and threaded a neat pass to his left for the scampering Motuidi who scored
with his inside of the foot at the near post.
In almost a carbon copy of that goal, the Real
Madrid gunman, received the long ball and sped with the ball, carried it into
the penalty box on the left. Djourou challenged him despite the fact that he
had little chance to score from the narrow angle he created. The referee gave a
penalty. Benzema picked himself up and took the spot kick. Benaglio blocked the
shot by diving to his right. Cabaye took advantage of a static Swiss defence
and shot his attempt against the crossbar.
France grew in confidence and began to menace as
they found spaces in the porous defence that had Senderos who came in to
replace the injured Von Bergen. Switzerland lost concentration and compactness in
defence. There was no cohesion between units and lost battles in defence and
midfield. They could not exploit the open wing left by the attacking French
defenders and failed to penetrate the central defence. They became naïve when
faced with the French attacking power and vulnerable against counter attacks as
they let Giroud pick up the ball from midfield and attack the left wing. He
played the ball square for Valbuena to score with a first-time shot. There was no
closing down of the cross and Valbuena popped up at the far post without a
defender tracking his run. The defenders could do little sprinting facing their
goalkeeper.
The second half started slowly as the French seemed
content to wait and absorb all the pressure the Swiss threw at them. The Swiss
were got the encouragement to engage the French seriously by pushing harder and
further ahead creating clear-cut chances. They failed to capitalise as they
hurried the shots and missed the target. After those scary moments, France
lifted their act a notch up and passé the ball around. They found spaces on the
right flank, exchanged a few passes. Paul Pogba’s clever cross found Benzema
who finished it off by driving the ball between the goalkeeper’s legs. The
French striker ran in front of the defence across the centre to meet the ball.
Switzerland were guilty of not tracking his run. The goalkeeper came off his
line and started flying in the air as the ball came, instead of staying on his
feet to deal with the shot.
The former Fifa World Cup champions enjoyed a purple
patch and increased the pace of their game. They found spaces left, right and
centre. They won the ball in midfield on the left and interpassed their way
into the attacking third to the left. Benzema played the ball to his right and
Sissoko placed the ball into the net. Again, the marking was atrocious as the
defenders were just ball watching. They seemed lost and unaware of the third-man
running. They were neither compact nor tactical aware of the events around
them.
France had it a little easy from that point on and
became guilt of loss of concentration in midfield. They lost the hunger to
fight and win the second ball. It was at that point that Switzerland scored two
quick goals as they won a free-kick outside the penalty box. Hugo Lloris’ wall
was porous at it let a hard and low Dzemaili strike nestle at the left bottom
corner of the net. Lightining struck twic at the same place as quick exchanges
on the right resulted in the long pass to the central position to Inler. The
Swiss midfielder picked up a good run by Xhaka who hooked the ball with a first
time shot past a bemused Lloris.
The referee stole the limelight from a goal infested
game when he blew the whistle while the ball was enroute to goal when Benzema
connected a volley from a pass delivered from the right wing. He celebrated the
goal that never was, as did some French players. As much as France played very
well, the Swiss defence was shocking.
