France will face Switzerland in Bucharest, where the Swiss have never beaten Les Bleus in a competitive match. France will aim to maintain their undefeated competitive record against Switzerland when the teams play in the UEFA EURO 2020 round of 16 at the National Arena Bucharest.
The world champions finished top in Group F despite winning just one of their three games and drawing the other two, while Switzerland qualified from Group A as one of the best third-placed teams overall.
The winner of this tie will face either Croatia or Spain in the quarter-finals on July 2 in Saint Petersburg.
The history between France and Switzerland
Switzerland’s record versus France in 38 games is W12 D10 L16, although they have yet to win a competitive match against Les Bleus (D4 L2).
The teams last met in the group stage of UEFA EURO 2016, with a goalless Matchday 3 draw at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille, ensuring that both sides advanced from Group A, France in the first position with seven points and Switzerland in second with five.
After 32 friendly matches between 1905 and 2003, their first competitive meeting was in UEFA EURO 2004, when Jacques Santini’s France defeated Köbi Kuhn’s Switzerland 3-1 in the final group match. France’s goals came from Zinédine Zidane and Thierry Henry (both twice), while Switzerland’s consolation came from Johan Vonlanthen, who became the EURO championships’ youngest ever scorer at 18 years and 141 days.
The countries shared two draws en route to qualifying for the 2006 FIFA World Cup when they have matched again and drew again in their first group match in Stuttgart.
When they met in the group stage of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, it was a different scenario, with Didier Deschamps’ France winning 5-2 against Ottmar Hitzfeld’s Switzerland, with five other goal scorers. France’s Olivier Giroud, Karim Benzema, and Moussa Sissoko all scored, while Switzerland’s Granit Xhaka added a late second.
Hugo Lloris, Raphael Varane, Antoine Griezmann, and Paul Pogba all played for France in that game, while the Swiss started Ricardo Rodrguez, Xherdan Shaqiri, Haris Seferovic, and Admir Mehmedi.
France
France’s 1-1 draw with Hungary ended the team’s run of five consecutive triumphs – all with clean sheets – including their opening 1-0 win at UEFA EURO 2020 against Germany in Munich. Following the 2-2 draw against Portugal, Les Bleus have now won 17 of their past 23 matches, with only one setback — a 0-2 loss at home to Finland in a Stade de France friendly on November 11, 2020. It is one of only two games in those 23 in which they have failed to score.
Les Bleus’ most recent competitive defeat came in a UEFA EURO 2020 qualifier away to Turkey in June 2019, after which they have won 14 and drawn five of their 19 matches across three tournaments. Since the UEFA EURO 2016 final, they have gone undefeated in 10 tournament games (W7 D3).
The world champions warmed up for UEFA EURO 2020 by defeating Wales in Nice on June 2, with goals from Kylian Mbappé, Antoine Griezmann, and Ousmane Dembélé, and Bulgaria six days later, with a late double from Olivier Giroud – his 45th and 46th international goals – adding to another Griezmann strike.
Switzerland
The win against Turkey in Switzerland’s final group game was the team’s sixth in eight matches, with the opening draw against Wales ending a five-match winning streak that triumphs had extended in UEFA EURO 2020 warm-up games in St Gallen against the United States (2-1) and Liechtenstein (7-0). The defeat by Italy on Matchday 2 in Rome is Vladimir Petkovic’s team’s lone setback in their past nine games.
Switzerland’s Mario Gavranovi scored three goals against Liechtenstein, becoming the only UEFA EURO 2020 player to achieve a hat-trick in any pre-tournament friendlies. It was his first treble on the international stage.
Granit Xhaka, Switzerland’s captain, has not missed an international match in almost three years, dating back to a friendly against Spain on June 3, 2018. He has made 36 consecutive appearances in that time, the first 30 of which were all in the starting XI. The last competitive international he did not start was a World Cup qualifier in Hungary on October 7, 2016, for which he was banned; he has started all 38 after then.
Latest meeting
In a penalty shootout, Switzerland goalkeeper Yann Sommer stopped a penalty attempt from Kylian Mbappe, knocking France out of the European Championship. Switzerland won the shootout 5-3 following a 3-3 tie-in overtime.
Earlier, in the round of 16 of the European Championship, France and Switzerland went to a penalty shootout after extra time. Switzerland’s Mario Gavranovic equalized in the 90th minute in Bucharest.
It’s the second extra-time match of the day. After 90 minutes, Spain and Croatia were likewise tied at 3-3. In the end, Spain won 5-3 in Copenhagen.
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