The new Arsenal signing Granit Xhaka will surely be feeling gutted today after Switzerland were knocked out of Euro 2016 by Poland, especially as it was his missed penalty in the shoot out that made the difference. He became the second Arsenal star after the Czech Republic keeper Petr Cech to exit the tournament and there could be more today, although France and the Arsenal pair of Laurent Koscielny and Olivier Giroud are strong favourites to go through against the plucky Republic of Ireland team.
The Irish may have only got through by the skin of their teeth and be strong favourites to go out today, with three days fewer than the hosts to rest and prepare, but their fans are definitely firm favourites thanks to the friendly party atmosphere that follows them around.
On the pitch, however, they will need to be much less friendly towards the French and so Koscielny and Giroud, with the centre forward back in the starting line-up after missing the last match, will need to be up for the physical battle in what could be a bruising encounter. Bruising is okay but I just hope that neither of the Gunners suffers anything worse than that.
So far we have not seen any serious injury to any Arsenal players and with just the Copa America final to be played in the USA it looks like that tournament has gone well for us (fingers crossed) and if the same is true of the Euros then we can all breathe a big sigh of relief and start gearing up for the new season.
Good luck to the French Gunners today.
Come on the Padys!!!!!!
Emanuele Guliani claims Arsenal have agreed terms with £60m rated Romelu Lukaku
60 effing miL for Lukaku?……….. This is indeed a quantic dream….. Pls wake me up
that’s enough money to go after Aubameyang….
France 0:1 IreLand …………Hahaha
Don’t care bout favourites or the Host….. Hope france are eliminated
*send in ur thumbs down if u dn’t wish for that*
Hey! It looks as if France want to follow the UK residents and exit the Euro’s! ?
If giroud is leading our line next season we can kiss any trophies goodbye already … Mediocrity doesn’t win titles … What is wenger’s problem
Fair play to Ireland, they are passing the ball around like Brazil, at the moment.
And France are looking more like Arsenal ?
no doubts that France will come back in the second half to win this.?
@Fatboy…….. U have to have a bit of doubt bru……… Hope the game ends in IreLand’s favour *winks*
Actually giroud is just embarrassing … Enough of this crap … If wenger doesn’t buy two quality strikers just want him out by whatever means necessary
GRIEZMANN!!!!…………………. Wooooooooooooooo!
What a pass from OG! Reminds me of his pass to Sanchez against City.
Sacrificing his body for a goal for his country!
Aside that pass (bearing in mind the pass was decisive), what else did he do for 60mins?
Must he always do something????
What has Lewandowski,Ibra,and co done???
He has one goal and one assist so far,he has done his part,it is a team game!!!
Regardless of what some think of Olivier. He remains one of the best target men out there…And just as you stated “goonerboy”, it is a team game.
Ireland didn’t stand a chance…
I wish a fast recovery for Zhaka from his missed penality pain. I think he used excessive power on the ball and forced it to change direction. Any way penality kick needs to some extent luck. Other wise he was solid at the middle of the park and they could have compeleted the game during the normal playing time. The y were unluck at all.
I am one fan who has said we need a pacey striker in our attack, but that does not mean Giroud should not be a member of the squad, there are teams Giroud would be needed to play against in the league.
What i found really distasteful today was the awful service from the players around Giroud, but the commentator made it sound like Giroud was doing france harm, Giroud Misplace two passes and the commentator was on it instantly, however i saw other players misplace several passes and the commentator did not make mention of them. It was Giroud’s effort on the field that allowed france to get two goals. He pulled the two defenders away to allow griezeman to get a free header on goal and then out jump two defenders to set of griezeman second, base on the commentators action it shows a bias against giroud, we as fans also do it which is quite unfair, he does contribute to arsenal and the french team massively even if he is not our preferred striker