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The 2016 UEFA European Championships is being played across France from June 10 to July 10 for the first time with 24 nations across 10 venues in nine cities with the French capital Paris being the only city with two venues in the Stade de France and the Park de Prince.
The defending double champions are Spain, who are three time record champions along with Germany.
GROUP A – Matchday 2
Romania 1-1 (1-0) Switzerland
Romania held Switzerland to a 1-1 draw at the Parc des Princes in Paris.
The Swiss had the first couple of chances through striker Haris Seferovic, but then in the 17th minute Stefan Lichtsteiner wrongly
pulled the shirt of Alexandru Chipciu too long and referee Sergei Karasev pointed to the spot with Bogdan Stancu scored past keeper Yann Sommer, his second of the tournament.
The Swiss were not shocked and in the 22nd minute a Fabian Schär long distance attempt was just about cleared by keeper Ciprian Tatarusanu before Chipciu at the other end just about missed the target. Switzerland continued to have more of the game, but wasted their chances to go into the break with a goal behind.
The Swiss after the break continued to control things, but seemed to lose their way before they finally equalised though a brilliant Admir Mehmedi volley in the 57th minute. The Swiss continued with their game, but chances would not really come their way until the end as Romania were happy to walk away with a draw.
Carlsberg Man of the Match: Granit Xhaka (Switzerland) #ROUSUI
France 2-0 (0-0) Albania
Hosts France needed two late goals to beat a fighting Albania 2-0 in Marseille and became the first team to qualify for the Euro 2016 pre-quarterfinals.
France did not start off were they left off against Romania, while Albania did play like they did against Switzerland with passion and pride against a superior opponent, who did not do everything possible to score a goal. It was a surprise that the first session ended goalless.
But France coach Didier Deschamps seems to have found the right words in the break and he also brought on Paul Pogba, which did change the completion of the game as only seconds into the half, Kingsley Coman put a header just wide before Albania had their best chance of the game in the 52nd minute as N’golo Kanté put a high cross onto his own post and Memushaj missed the ball thereafter.
But this was the last chance for Albania, who tired towards the end of the game and France didn’t have chances galore though putting a lot of pressure on the Albanian defence but in the 90th minute a cross from Adel Rami was headed in by substitute Antoine Griezmann to give France the three points.
Man of the match Dimitri Payet had one left, scoring a placed goal with his right foot in the 6th minute of added time to enhance the celebrations of the Les Bleues fans.
Carlsberg Man of the Match: Dimitri Payet (France) #FARALB
