Antoine Griezmann: ‘France need to improve’

Match-winner Antoine Griezmann revealed harsh words were said at half-time as France fought back to beat Republic of Ireland 2-1 at Euro 2016.

They took a second-minute lead through Robbie Brady’s nerveless penalty after Paul Pogba’s rash challenge on Shane Long, and France were booed off by a section of their own support at the break as they failed to rectify the damage. “But the second half was always going to be tough for us and we played well but we just couldn’t keep the door closed for long enough, which is disappointing”.

France’s forward Antoine Griezmann celebrates after scoring a goal during the match with North Ireland at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais stadium.

France emerged for the second half a different team and should have leveled within three minutes of the restart when Laurent Koscielny headed wide from close-range after meeting Dimitri Payet’s free kick.

France will play the victor of Monday’s match between England and Iceland in a quarter-final at the Stade de France in Paris next Sunday.

Ireland, which finished as one of the best third-placed sides at the tournament after its shock 1-0 win over Italy, had set itself up perfectly to frustrate the home side and left the field at halftime having carried out its game plan rather perfectly.

“You can see that we’ve got some quality players”, he said.

“We really speeded things up and that’s when we are most unsafe”.

France played at a much higher tempo and Randolph was thoroughly tested by Blaise Matuidi’s shot from just outside the box on 55 minutes. “We knew about [the difference] before, but it is an incredible amount of time for one team to have over another one”.

“It was hard for us, because there was a the penalty at the start which was a bit of a shock”, France coach Didier Deschamps said, expressing relief at the fightback as the home fans celebrated.

Griezmann struck either side of the hour mark to the relief of the nervous home fans before Ireland had defender Shane Duffy sent off after 66 minutes for bringing down the flying forward.

The French had to regroup after their sloppy start, but showed they are capable of being real contenders if they cut out their mistakes.

He almost got a third goal in injury time but Ireland goalkeeper Darren Randolph made the save.

“When I analyse the qualification and the group we were put into, I think the team has done fantastically well”.

Wednesday night’s exertions took their toll on the 10 men as France attacked in waves throughout the closing stages, but the Republic did not suffer any further punishment as they battled all the way to the whistle.

France coach Didier Deschamps applauds at the end of the Euro 2016 round of 16 soccer match between …

France came from behind to win a Euro finals game for the first time since 2004 (against England).