France triumphed over Switzerland in 5-2 thrashing of Switzerland in a Group E encounter at Salvador. The win made sure that France went to top the group with 6 points. Not many saw France as title contenders before this match. But Benzema & co made sure France is in the hunt for the much coveted trophy. Oliver Giroud, Blaise Matuidi,
Mathieu Valbuena, Karim Benzema and Moussa Sissoko were on the scoresheet as the Les Bleus steamrolled over a hapless Swiss team. Didier Deschamps men, with this win have made sure of their qualification to the round of 16 with this win.
France went into the game on a positive note having won their previous encounter with Honduras. It wasn’t much convincing though as this win. The game was won in the first half itself when France scored 3 with the exception of the first penalty of the World Cup. The Swiss team was all but on a negative side coming into the second half. However, they tried their best to come back with two second half goals.
France is a team that had a lot of setbacks running into the World Cup. The fans might have given little chance for them when they decided to pick the team for Brazil without their star player Samir Nasri and their key talisman Frank Ribery out with an injury that ruled him out of the World Cup. Didier Deschamps had the belief in his boys to pull it through. Mathieu Valbuena has been a revelation so far for the Les Bleus, scoring and setting up goals for France. He has been a talisman for them in the absense of their key man Ribery. Yesterdays match should have made Zinedine Zidane proud, reminicizing of the 2006 World Cup team that entered the World Cup finals.
The goal bonanza started with Oliver Giroud, the Arsenal man heading in from a Valbuena corner. The football pundits say the best place to head a ball is in the top corner and thats what exactly he did. France was up 1-0. Balise Matuidi and Karim Benzema linked up to make sure they made Valon Behrami pay for the mistake when he needlessly gave the ball away to Benzema. Matuidi took a low-drive shot to ensure France went up 2-0. Meanwhile, Switzerland was denied goals by the offside rule and by some good goalkeeping by French captain Hugo Lloris. Then came an un-necessary penalty conceded by Switzerland when Benzema was tripped in the box. Benzema, though had his shot saved by Swiss goalkeeper Benaglio much to the amuse of the French fans. Minutes later, by viryue of excellent counter-attacking football made sure that Oliver Giroud made a mockery of the Swiss defence to provide a simple tap in to Valbuena. France went up 3-0 into the half time break.
After the break, France did not have the best of starts, Switzerland had the possession and played some attacking football. Paul Pogba, who played the first match came on as a substitute for Oliver Giroud, came up with some excellent vision to pick up Benzema who finished it as cool as a cucumber. It was Benzema’s third goal of the tournament. He is a contender for the golden boot, provided he keeps up this work rate and fine run of form. Patrice Evra as he has shown with club side Manchester United started surging forward on a couple of occassions. He was looking dangerous. Another attack by France saw Benzema slip down a pass to Sissoko, who had nerves of steel to put the ball in back of the net. France led Switzerland by 5-0. France could have made it 6-0 or 7-0, but they were denied by some determined defence and their goalkeeper. As a token of consolation, Blerim Dzemaili and Xhaka came up with goals to deny Lloris a clean sheet. But the destruction had been already done. With this win they announce their arrival into the tournament. It should act as a wake up call for teams like Brazil and France.
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