Griezmann and Payet spare France’s blushes against Albania

And their second game against an Albanian team ranked another 20 positions lower than Romania, seemed to be following suit for a subdued France side lacking any bite.

They will be closely watched by an Albanian side weakened by the loss of captain Lorik Cana, a veteran of 92 worldwide games who is crucial to his side either as a holding midfielder or a central defender.

For the opening match of the European Championship between France and Romania, Antoine Griezmann played 66 minutes and Paul Pogba 78.

The result sees France return to the top of Group A with six points from two matches, two points clear of Switzerland, with Romania nearly out of the running and Albania now playing for third position. “We had a much better balance in the second half and were more aggressive”. France is at the top spot with three points, followed by Switzerland and then Romania in third and Albania in the last position.

Didier Deschamps made two changes to the side that defeated Romania in the opening match, replacing Paul Pogba and Antoine Griezmann with Kingsley Coman and Anthony Martial.

Moments later, Payet met Giroud’s nice lay-off to hit an inviting delivery with the outside of his right boot towards the back post where Pogba rushed in only to fire inches over.

A hopeful Albania side is going to try to make life as hard for France as they can.

Hungary upset Austria on Tuesday with a 2-0 win, and Iceland held Portugal to a thrilling 1-1 draw.

“The most important thing was that we won, and he, just like the team, is only going to get better”, added Lloris.

France has the home pitch advantage throughout the entire Euro 2016 tournament and we have already seen that they will be the team to beat in Group A this year.

But it’s not only Pogba who underperformed against Romania; Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Blaise Matuidi was also below his best.

Albania will be without their Captain, Lorik Cana following his removal from their first match against Switzerland. France leads Albania 1-0.

“Often it’s the players that come off the bench that make the difference”.

Deschamps brought on Pogba for the ineffectual Anthony Martial, and Coman almost got France on track 30 seconds into the new half, but his header went agonizingly wide.