52 min: Zuber tears down the left. He’s got the beating of Pavard! He enters the box. Pavard slides in, and looks to have taken him down. Zuber does his level best to stay on his feet. Play goes on. France go up the other end. Their move breaks down.
50 min: ... and here comes Embolo, dribbling with purpose into the French box from the right. His low cross looks to have found Shaqiri at the far post for a tap-in ... but Shaqiri’s fated to take a fresh-air swipe, because Varane manages to get a little deflection on the cross that foxes him. What sensational defending! That looked for all the world like a two-goal lead for the Swiss.
49 min: Switzerland take some time to ping it around themselves, a reminder that they’re not planning to spend the second half sitting deep.
47 min: Pogba diddles Xhaka and Rodriguez down the right, only to shank the ball out for a goal kick. But again, it’s an early sign that France have been ordered to pick it up a bit. Bof is not enough.
46 min: France are now playing four at the back again, by the looks of it. Griezmann has a pop from distance; it’s always heading wide right. But it’s a statement of intent, if nothing else.
France get the second half underway. Deschamps/Steptoe/Savage has made a change, hooking Lenglet and sending on Coman.
Half-time postbag. “The Swiss didn’t get a lucky goal and then just hang on. The Swiss are outplaying the French and France are lucky they are not further behind” - Mary Waltz.
“Does anyone else think Didier Deschamps bears more than a passing resemblance to Albert Steptoe, especially in his more anxious moments?” - Steve Dennis.
“It’s been troubling me who Dechamps looks like all tournament and it’s clear now: Paul O’Grady” - Lenny Peters.
Half-time entertainment. Easy to forget, for those of us who live in the moment, and so intriguing has that first half been, that we’re coming off the back of an eight-goal thriller. Sid Lowe’s verdict is in; enjoy, enjoy.
The Swiss deservedly lead. They could have had more, as well. A lot of thinking for Didier Dechamps to do. Big half-time speech coming up. “Well that was the 45 minute representation of a single Gallic shrug,” writes Gary Naylor. Yep. Bof in human form.
45 min +2: Embolo takes a dreadful whack upside the head in an accidental 50-50 collision with Rabiot. He’s thankfully up again soon enough.
45 min +1: Embolo barges down the right wing with extreme prejudice. He enters the box and attempts a cross. It deflects off Lenglet and pinballs into the six-yard box at pace. The ball could have flown anywhere, but Varane is able to hack clear.
45 min: There will be two added minutes.
44 min: Griezmann is robbed by Embolo mid-feint. Embolo briefly threatens to break clear down the middle before being nudged off the ball. If either team are desperate to hear the half-time whistle in order to regroup, it’s the world champions.
43 min: Griezmann flicks a pass in from the right for Mbappe, who drives at the Swiss box before flaying a miserable effort miles over the bar.
41 min: Xhaka slips a cute pass down the inside left to feed Embolo, who can’t get a shot away, but earns a corner. Nothing comes of it.
40 min: France stroke it around the back. Suddenly Shaqiri intercepts and sends Embolo into space down the right. The ball’s sent wide left to Seferovic, who doesn’t back himself in a footrace with Pavard. The move breaks down, but France were exposed there.
38 min: Some punter is having a wee jog about the pitch. As they’re pursued by the polis, the players take the opportunity of an impromptu drinks break.
37 min: Griezmann’s corner is no good, failing to beat the first man. Switzerland are giving as good as they’re getting; the possession stats are 51-49 to France.
36 min: Griezmann, out on the left flank, crosses deep towards Pavard. Zuber is forced to head behind for a corner.
34 min: Pogba is fairly fortunate not to make it three bookings in four minutes as he clatters into the back of Embolo, who was in full flight down the left wing. Just a free kick, from which nothing comes.
33 min: Griezmann was upended by Elvedi as he played that ball to Rabiot, and the Swiss defender goes rightfully into the book.
32 min: ... and this could easily have been an equaliser for France. Griezmann turns a first-time ball around the corner down the left. Rabiot dribbles into the box but overruns the ball before he can shoot. Goal kick.
31 min: Shaqiri whips a stunner towards the far post. Embolo wins a wrestle with Kimpembe, only to flash a header wide right from six yards. That could very easily have been a second for the Swiss ...
30 min: Zuber drops a shoulder to gain a yard down the left. He’s about to tear free when Varane comes across to stop him with a cynical slide. Free kick, just to the side of the French box, and the first yellow card of the game.
28 min: France are dominating possession, but the Swiss don’t look particularly uncomfortable with that right now. So having typed all that out, Rabiot creams a low diagonal pearler inches wide of the right-hand post. Sommer probably had it covered, were it on target, though it’d have needed a strong hand to turn it out.
26 min: Mbappe drives the free kick straight into the wall. The ball comes back to him. He sends a first-time diagonal screamer well wide of the right-hand post.
25 min: France draw a few pretty triangles down the left. Robiot flicks into the stomach of Freuler. The referee ludicrously awards a free kick for handball. This is in a dangerous area, 25 yards out, just to the left of centre.
24 min: Shaqiri attempts a clever first-time reverse pass down the middle. Lenglet does well to read the danger and intercept, with Seferovic ready to zip clear.
22 min: France gather themselves and launch a couple of attacks. First Pogba nearly quarterbacks Mbappe clear, but Elvedi stays strong. Then Rabiot bustles down the left and chips across the face of goal for Benzema. Sommer gets a fingertip to the cross, diverting it away from danger.
20 min: On the touchline, Didier Deschamps has the good grace to look concerned. He’s hoping to become the first man to win both the Euros and the World Cup as both player and manager. His team are a little rattled all of a sudden.
18 min: Griezmann is bowled over by a full-of-vim Seferovic, out on the left. Free kick. France load the box. Griezmann floats it in, but Elvedi rises above Pogba aned Varane to head clear.
16 min: There’s a VAR check for bugger all. Switzerland, rather wonderfully, continue to celebrate the opening goal with great feeling, paying the pointless pause no heed. Eventually the game restarts ... and we do have a game. Oh we have a game.
Hello! What’s this? Some space for Zuber down the left. He digs out a wonderful cross. Seferovic rises highest in the centre, miles over Lenglet, and plants an unstoppable downwards header into the bottom left! Lloris had no chance!
14 min: Griezmann wedges a chip down the left and nearly releases Mbappe. The fear of Elvedi, sticking to him, just about, is palpable. The Jan Olsson to Mbappe’s Cruyff?
12 min: Mbappe and Benzema combine crisply down the left after a mistake from Embolo. The move breaks down, much to the Swiss forward’s relief, but the world crackles with electricity every time Mbappe touches the ball. “If we have to have national anthems then why can’t they all be the Marseillaise?” wonders David Wall. “Especially now that Russia are out, nothing else comes close. Special credit to Italy though, their anthem seems like enormous fun to sing.” Anthem envy is a thing, right? Certainly around these parts.
10 min: Zuber holds off Kante, 30 yards out. The ball’s fed down the right for Freuler, who whistles a dangerous cross across the face of the French goal. Fortunately for France, Seferovic is on the back foot and doesn’t attack the ball.
8 min: Embolo makes good down the Swiss left and earns a corner off Varane. Rodriguez swings it in. Varane clanks a header clear. Somewhere in the multiverse, four or five goals have already been scored.
7 min: Mbappe twists and turns down the left to win another corner. He’s not scored yet in this tournament, and clearly fancies a piece of the action tonight.
6 min: Griezmann crosses from the left. Rodriguez misses his header. Benzema chests down, eight yards out, with a view to shooting, but Zuber gets in the road, just in time. These are high-octane opening exchanges!
5 min: Mbappe burns down the right wing this time. He feeds Kante in the middle. Kante switches play to the left, where Benzema tricks Elvedi with a little jig, before pulling back from the byline to nobody in particular. Switzerland half clear.
4 min: It’s a bright start, this. Switzerland come back at France, Shaqiri busying himself down the right, his deep cross forcing Kimpembe into conceding a corner. Rodriguez loops it in, but France deal with it without too much fuss.
2 min: Griezmann whips the corner towards Varane, in a pocket of space on the edge of the six-yard box. He doesn’t get a firm header on the ball, which pings miles over the bar. He possibly should have scored; he certainly should have worked Sommer at the very least. That could have been a sensational start.
1 min: France are very quickly on the attack, Griezmann sending Mbappe scooting down the left. He can’t quite get past Elvedi, but soon enough the first corner of the game is won.
The Powercube starts us up. Xherdan Shaqiri kicks off for the Swiss.
The teams are out! France wear their famous bleu, while Switzerland are in second-choice weiss. Both teams only have about 1,500 dedicated followers egging them on, though they’ll make the noise of 15,000, I’ll be bound. There are coins to be tossed, pennants to be swapped, fists to be bumped. Once all that’s done, we’ll be under way. Off in a couple of minutes!
The national anthems. The French one is a banger, second only to As Time Goes By as the best song in Casablanca ...
To arms, citizens! / Form your battalions! / March, march! / Let an impure blood water our furrows
... though the Swiss Psalm is pretty great as well. People like to say salsa Swiss Psalm.
When the morning skies grow red / And o’er their radiance shed / Thou, O Lord, appeareth in their light / When the Alps glow bright with splendour!
France have won the European Championship twice, in 1984 and 2000. You can read about their Euro 2000 exploits here; then click below for Steven Pye’s analysis of Michel Platini’s imperial phase.
Pre-match entertainment. Nick Ames is our man in Bucharest; here’s his big-match preview.
The winners of this game will face Spain in the quarter-finals in Saint Petersburg on Friday. They’ve just beaten Croatia 5-3 after extra-time, the sort of scoreline that wouldn’t have looked out of place at that 1954 World Cup. In doing so, Spain have become the first team in Euros history to score five goals in consecutive matches. Here’s how a wild afternoon in Copenhagen unfolded; Niall McVeigh’s got blisters on his fingers.
Vladimir Petkovic has been in charge of Switzerland since 2014. This is his 77th game as boss, equalling the record of Karl Rappan, who had four spells in charge between 1937 and 1963. Rappan was the last man to take the Swiss to the quarter-finals of a tournament, at the aforementioned 1954 World Cup, only for his defensive system - the verrou, or Bolt - to shear clean off, his team losing 7-5 to Austria in the famous Heat Battle of Lausanne.
France make three changes to the team selected for the draw against Portugal. Clement Lenglet takes his place in a back three, while Benjamin Pavard and Adrien Rabiot are deployed as wing backs. Corentin Tolisso and Lucas Hernandez drop to the bench, while Jules Kounde misses out altogether. Switzerland name the same XI that started the Turkish romp.
France: Lloris, Varane, Lenglet, Kimpembe, Pavard, Pogba, Kante, Rabiot, Griezmann, Benzema, Mbappe.
Subs: Lemar, Giroud, Tolisso, Zouma, Mandanda, Sissoko, Coman, Lucas, Ben Yedder, Maignan, Dubois, Thuram.
Switzerland: Sommer, Elvedi, Akanji, Rodriguez, Widmer, Freuler, Xhaka, Zuber, Shaqiri, Seferovic, Embolo.
Subs: Mbabu, Zakaria, Vargas, Mvogo, Sow, Fassnacht, Benito, Mehmedi, Gavranovic, Fernandes, Kobel, Schar.
Referee: Fernando Rapallini (Argentina).
The world champions France have lost just one of their last 17 games at a major tournament; the Euro 2016 final against Portugal. They’re currently on a 19-match unbeaten run in competitive fixtures, since losing a Euro qualifier against Turkey in 2019. And, either least or most pertinently, depending on how you look at it, Les Bleus have never lost a competitive encounter against Switzerland, winning two and drawing the other four.
By comparison, the Round of 16 is the stage when the Swiss normally get a nosebleed; the last time Switzerland made it to the quarter-finals of a major championship was at the 1954 World Cup. A shoo-in for Didier Dechamps’ side, then ... except this is almost exactly what everyone was saying about Italy before they faced Austria on Saturday night, and look what a struggle that turned out to be. And while France breezed through Group F on cruise control, they haven’t touched the heights expected of them yet, while Switzerland, who qualified from Group A as one of the best third-placed sides, scored some very pretty goals against Turkey, and go into this game with their tails up.
So will France make it to the quarters as expected? Or will the Swiss deliver the shock of the championship so far? We’ll find out soon enough. It’s a big night in Bucharest. It’s on! Kick off is at 8pm BST, 10pm in Romania.
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