FAIRY TALE HAS A GRIM ENDING
Brave Iceland melt away under severe French onslaught
EVEN fairy tales can sometimes have unhappy endings and so it proved for this brave Iceland side as they were swept away by the French last night.
Typically, they fought to the end but, ultimately, the team who conquered England in the last 16 were made to look rather more limited here at the Stade de France as Didier Deschamps’ men booked a semi-final clash with Germany.
The host nation scored five — four coming in the first half — and they could easily have had more.
It was a sad way for the curtain to come down for Iceland. Maybe it was just one game too far.
From the moment they drew their opening match with Portugal, they have brought much to Euro 2016. France will not forget their contribution and nor will it forget the fantastic visiting supporters who sang to the end here in the teeming rain.
Truthfully, however, the home nation didn’t really have to work that hard to score their goals.
Deschamps’ side picked them off with goals from Oliver Giroud, Paul Pogba, Dimitri Payet and Antoine Griezmann in a first half that saw them have five shots on target and score with four.
Briefly Iceland rallied to at least score a goal through Kolbeinn Sigthorsson at the start of the second half but almost immediately Arsenal striker Giroud scored his second, rising unchecked to nod in a free-kick from Payet.
France had started nervously a week ago against the Republic of Ireland in Lyon. They conceded an early goal then and didn’t really recover until the second half.
Iceland will have been aware of this, aware that if they could get up on their opponents early then things may go their way.
Certainly they started with some intent, and were not looking to sit back and slowly find a way in to the game. The first two chances were theirs.
The first, in the third minute, came on the back of the sheer determination of Swansea City’s Gylfi Sigurdsson.
His dynamism saw him work an opening on the edge of the penalty area and his low shot was gathered by Hugo Lloris.
Two minutes later, the route was more direct as a chipped ball saw Johann Gudmundsson run in to space and he would have found himself clear on Lloris had his first touch been a little better.
It was warning enough for France, though. A little like Wales in the other half of the draw, they have grown in confidence as the tournament has gone on.
France had actually started quite slowly, their passing not fluent. One shot from Payet had forced Hannes Halldorsson into a routine save in the sixth minute but when the hosts sprang forward to take the lead soon after, it was a goal that came from nowhere.
Giroud’s run off the shoulders of the Iceland central defenders was a decent one and his left-foot finish between the goalkeeper’s legs was struck hard and true.
But it was a malfunctioning Iceland offside trap that made the largest contribution to the opening, Giround running unchecked on to Blaise Matuidi’s pass.
A goal to the good, it was possible to feel some of the pressure lift from France and they began to play more fluently.
West Ham star Payet in particular was drifting into good positions in a free role and he was involved in a decent move in the 20th minute that led to a French corner.
There was nothing special about the subsequent delivery but the way Pogba made the ball his own was quite extraordinary.
His marker, Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, had spotted Pogba’s run and gone with him but the 23-year-old’s sheer physical power made the difference as he simply jumped higher and with more strength to head the ball in at the far post.
Iceland remained in the contest until just before half time but two quick goals saw them off.
Payet scored his third of the tournament in the 42nd minute and again the move began innocuously. Bacary Sagna’s cross from the right seemed a little overhit but it wasn’t cleared properly.
And when Griezmann slipped the ball back to Payet he cleverly made space to his left before pulling the ball across his body and into the corner past Halldorsson’s outstretched left hand.
For the first time in three weeks, Icelandic heads dropped. They knew at that moment their tournament was over.
Only a minute later, a pass forward from Umtiti was helped on its way by Giroud and Atletico Madrid’s Griezmann ran clear to score with a quite sumptuous lob.
It was a goal that said everything about the two teams — one playing with rare confidence, the other shellshocked. We should have known that Iceland would not simply lie down and die.
Not from what we have witnessed before in this tournament.
True to form, they scored their first goal in the 56th minute, Sigthorsson reaching a low cross from Sigurdsson ahead of Umtiti to poke the ball in at the near post.
Once again though, they simply switched off at the back and only a few minutes after their goal, Payet swung a routine free-kick into the area and Giroud leaped highest among the bodies to score his second of the evening.
There was a second for the departing islanders late on as Birkir Bjarnason powered in a header at the back post.
The fairy tale was over. The French are playing the Germans. But the Icelanders are going home with some amazing tales to tell.