the Swiss tell their feat against the French team

It was a great first last night between France and Switzerland. For the first time in its history, the two nations faced each other in a knockout match. A confrontation that our Blues approached with a certain confidence since the statistics spoke for them. In 38 duels, the Habs won 16 times, against 12 for the Helvetians (10 draws). But above all, the Roosters remained on a series of seven games without defeats against the Nati (3 wins and 4 draws).

Just after learning that Vladimir Petkovic’s men were going to challenge the reigning world champions, the Swiss press joked about the fact that the last time the Nati beat the Blues, Didier Deschamps had not yet taken his retirement. Unfortunately for the French, the Swiss awakening came at the worst time. While the Blues were aiming for the World Cup-Euro double, they will finally watch the rest of the European Championship in front of their televisions.

Beaten on penalties when they were leading 3-1 in the 80th minute, Paul Pogba’s teammates are at the bottom of the hole. The Swiss are jubilant. Starting with coach Petkovic. “The team played with this desire to give everything, to run 100%, for 120 minutes. When we do that, we can maintain our style of play. It was important in the last half hour of play, to keep the ball. We had this energy, probably a little more than France ”, he said at a press conference.

“I tell myself that maybe at 3-1 France thought it was over”

More energy, but also more mentality for the Helvetians who did not want to give up, even at 3-1, as explained by Granit Xhaka. “In the 65th or 68th, I looked at the clock, on a corner against us, I said to Yann (Sommer): ‘we have to wake up, you also have to wake up the defenders in front of you’. I tell myself that maybe at 3-1 France thought it was over, I’m not talking about arrogance, but I knew that if we scored the 3-2 … “ The least we can say is that the Arsenal player had a good intuition.

Finally, the hero Yann Sommer, who stopped Kylian Mbappé’s shot on goal, was on his own after the feat of his family. “It was an incredible football night. We showed a lot of mind and a lot of heart. We left everything on the ground. When you go against the world champions, getting back two goals, in a phase where you are really down, it’s incredible. There is always a bit of luck in penalties. I am incredibly proud of our team. I am incredibly proud of this team. At 3-1, nobody believed in us anymore, but before the match we said to ourselves: whatever happens, whatever the scenario, we will go all the way, to the end. Quarter-final: that’s history. We absolutely wanted to do it, we are proud. “ And there is something.