The defeat France suffered at the hands of Switzerland in the second round of Euro 2020 on June 28 is still attracting controversies four days after the game. French Football Federation president Noel Le Graet has admitted that the FA made a mistake in preparation for the Round of 16 game.
Recall that France that were regarded as the favorites to win the Euro 2020, were stunned out of the tournament by less rated Switzerland team via penalty shootouts.
Before the shootouts, France threw away a 3-1 lead and allowed Switzerland to stage a come back which France could not stop. They drew 3-3 in regular time and went on penalty shootouts after a goalless extra time.
Switzerland scored all their spot-kicks while France missed the last kick, thanks to Kylian Mbappe.
After the game, different negative reports started making the rounds. One of such was that the family of some of the French players had a misunderstanding on the stands at the match venue.
Some reports claimed that there has been a lingering division among the players of the French team; the speculation gained more prominence when one of the veterans of the team, Olivier Giroud said his teammates were not passing the ball to him during a friendly game with Bulgaria on June 8, 2021.
In reaction to that, Kylian Mbappe came out to criticize the veteran striker who scored two goals during the friendly. Mbappe said Giroud should not have come to the press to accuse his teammates.
Despite this incident that happened few days before the Euro 2020 kicked off, the captain of France national team, Hugo Lloris came out to insist that there was no infighting in the team.
After Switzerland knocked out France from the European Championship, it was reported that the hotel the French FA chose for the team in Bucharest, Romania ahead of the game affected the performance of the team.
However, the FFF president Noel Le Graet told French publication L’Equipe that the hotel had no role to play in France’s exit from the tournament. He revealed that one of the things that might have affected the team was the training center that the team used ahead of the round of 16 game.
“Let’s stop talking about the hotel. We didn’t lose because of the hotel. It was the training center that was really not good, I want to admit it,” he said.
“But if we get to the point of saying that if we had changed the hotel we would not have conceded the last two goals against Switzerland…,”
“We may have made mistakes, it is possible.
“In football, when you win, everyone is great. And when you lose, it’s someone else’s fault. I don’t agree with that.
“We played the first three games in good conditions and we lost the fourth because that is football. We have to talk football. The rest does not matter.”
An online petition calling for France vs Switzerland to be replayed has been signed by more than a quarter of a million people.
— Footy Accumulators (@FootyAccums) July 2, 2021
The petition claims that Yann Sommer did not have his feet on or behind the goal line before saving Kylian Mbappe's penalty.
😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/qjYJneu6IZ
