The world champions begin their knockout stages of Euro 2020 with a tough encounter against Switzerland. France are now the favourites to win this competition. With Portugal knocked out, we will have new champions come 11th of July and most people will tip the 2016 finalists to go one better.
Euro 2020 Round of 16
Monday 28 July
National Arena, Bucharest
21:00
To Win (90 min)
France 6/10
Draw 28/10
Switzerland 48/10
To Qualify
France 2/7
Switzerland 24/10
France
France topped a very difficult group which had three teams that were in the semifinals in 2016. They won against Germany, drew with Hungary and Portugal. With 5 points from a possible nine that was good enough to have what some would consider a good draw for the first knock out round where they will play Switzerland.
Le Bleus will be relying on their number 10 Kylian Mbappe who is yet to score in this competition but has been a pain to defenders. The return of Karim Benzema proved to be vital, and the Real Madrid star has been impressive in leading the French attack.
As expected, Didier Deschamps men have dominated all their matches played but they haven’t scored many goals as we would expect from a side that’s so dominant. Paul Pogba has been super impressive in midfield pulling a Man of the Match performance against Germany and was unlucky to score against Portugal.
Switzerland
Switzerland qualified as one of the best third placed teams. They were very flat in their group which saw them finish third and now they must face the best team in the competition.
The Swiss earned four points in their group beating Turkey 3-1, drawing 1-1 with Wales and lost 3-1 to group winners Italy. Switzerland will not be pushovers and they have proved that over the years, their defense is solid, and they have some experienced players who play for the biggest teams in Europe so it will be a fight if France are to win.
Nico Elvedi is the only doubt coming to this match, but he has recovered from injury. There are no other injuries, and the Swiss will most likely line up just as they did in the group stages.
Prediction: France Win (6/10)
France is France, we know all there is to know about them, they won the World Cup 3 years ago and reached the European Championship final in 2016 with a very similar team, they are in short very, consistent. I do not see this team being knocked out so early.
Written by Banele Pikwa