Having spoken before the tournament about wanting to create football history with France, Olivier Giroud stands on the cusp of doing just that.
Les Bleus will face Portugal in Sunday’s final after Antoine Griezmann’s brace secured a 2-0 victory over Germany in last night’s semi-final.
France already have three major international tournament successes to their name, the 1984 European Championships, 1998 World Cup – both secured in Paris – and the 2000 Euros, hosted by Holland and Belgium.
Will Giroud and Koscielny join fellow French Gunners – Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit, Nicolas Anelka (does he count?), Sylvain Wiltord, Robert Pires and Thierry Henry – in tasting similar success?
Ollie hopes so.
“It was an emotional night, we will enjoy it and then focus on Portugal,” he told BeIN Sport after the semi-final win.
“It was a key moment to score the first goal, the penalty changed the game because Germany had created some chances in the first half but weren’t able to score.”
“It’s been a while since we beat that team in a big match. We’re very tired but very happy tonight. We’re going to enjoy this and then concentrate on the final on Sunday.
“I’d like to write a chapter in history and achieve something great on Sunday.We hope there will be a great ending to this tournament, we can’t stop now.”
Giroud also reserved warm words for player of the tournament, Griezmann, who took his tally to six goals in six games.
“He took responsibility [for the penalty] and scored and he was in the right place at the right time for the second,” he said.
“He has really grown as this tournament has gone on, he is the man who gives us that bit extra.”
In the midst of all the joy at the Stade Velodrome, it was great to see Giroud and Koscielny take a moment to console a dejected Mesut Ozil.
#Arsenal through and through.
Giroud & Koscielny console Ozil as #FRA beat #GER at #EURO2016 https://t.co/NkYg23tYgS pic.twitter.com/ctyciNC1TT— Standard Sport (@standardsport) July 7, 2016
The German playmaker was good on the night but without the injured Mario Gomez his country lacked bite in the final third.
Mesut, like Rambo, will now head off on holiday for a few weeks before starting pre-season training on 1 August. He’ll likely miss the first game of the season.
Love that photo! Gutted for Ozil, but so pleased for Kos and especially Giroud who’s led the line terrifically in the face of a lot of criticism and negativity. One more game to go, allez les bleus! As for Griezmann… I guess we can dream!
Well, we had to buy Griezmann when he was at Real Sociedad. Like many other players, I really don’t know why Arsene did not buy him then. Now it is 100% impossible for us to buy him, absolutely no way.
Ozil. That’s why we didn’t go for him.
I don’t think so. Different players, not like they play in the same position. And we had money to buy both.
No, it was Sanchez that was bought at the time he could have signed Griezmann. We could have used the buy back clause for Carlos Vela as a bartering tool as well 🙁
At the time I wanted Griezmann instead of Sanchez, but in hindsight, if you had to have one of the two I’m sure the majority of people would go for Alexis, wouldn’t they?
I think Chris is right. WE may think there was plenty of money to get him, but for whatever reason the decision makers did not.
Maybe Wenger can’t compute more than one big transfer a season.
I thought we were on the verge of signing him in Jan 13/14 only to divert our attentions to a certain broken Swede instead..? People say we’d have won the league if we’d signed Suarez that year. I think the same could be said of Griezmann. What a player.
Yeah exactly. We bid 12m while Sociedad wanted over 20m.
Arsene doesn’t need to sign Griezmann, he can get fourth place without him.
From memory, I believe that we were interested in buying Griezmann, but he wanted to remain in Spain, and so signed for Atletico Madrid once he left Real Sociedad.
While I’m happy that France won, I’m disappointed that one of the outstanding defenders of the tournament, Jerome Boateng – who I’d love to see play alongside Koscielny for the Arsenal – is on his way home. What a player.
Cissokho would be a good buy for Arsenal as a squad player. He plays in the middle where we are well stocked but also on the wing. A powerhouse who can cover the ball out of reach of physical players, defends well etc… Too bad he was playing for that lot of Newcasle.
Yes Dom47, what an absolute fool he is, Wenger should have bought Suarez from Ajax, Neymar from Potugesa Santista and Messi from the Rosario labour ward. His lack of foresight is unforgivable.
Buddy, I am not saying that he is a fool. I am not getting into an argument with you, it is not worth it. If you read it again, you will understand, also if you remove ego from the equation. Please divert your need to fight with someone somewhere else.
Giroud is a great striker. He just doesn’t have the speed as shown when he was through to go beat Nuer in a one-on-one. The German defender was able to cover give meters to tackle him. He is great in everything else. I am not criticizing. Allez les bleus.
#Family
Is that you, Dominic Toretto?
Great photo, captures what it is to be an Arsenal player. Would love to see Oli score the winner, and come back full of confidence!
The striker we need is called Griezmann. Arsene what are you doing in France ? Get Ollie to set up a meeting with Antoine and then do your magic!
Paradise regained?
That photo! Gutted for Özil… Happy for Giroud and Koscielny… Well, I’m already used to suffering from conflicting emotions due to Arsenal.
Dont know why all you guys are saying we should sign Griezmann. Arsene would have buy now if he wanted to, but clearly he cant be in the fabled top top quality bracket.
Yeah, like… what top quality players has he ever bought before..
Also, i think it would be a travesty were Portugal to win the tournament. It baffles me that the highest ranked team they have beaten to get there was Wales (26), with scrappy over the line performances agaist Poland and Croatia (joint 27th).
Özil texts Koscielny: Germany are not Iceland.
Koscielny texts Özil: No, Iceland score goals.
France had luck and an Italian guy as their 12th player. The best team lost, but it happens in football. Don’t tell me about Kanté anymore: just a nasty guy. And i wonder what the West Ham fans say about Payet now that Özil outshone him so easily! Happy for Kos and Olivier and Deschamps. Imagine Griezmann with Mesut… And some legends > http://www.beinsports.com/france/euro-2016/video/la-belle-image-ozil-dit-a-wenger-souhaiter-la/294795 It’s in French, so here is my humble translation Journalist: How is he (Mesut) ? AW: He isn’t going well because he has lost the game but there were nice images because he cried just after… Read more »
Please France, just beat Portugal so we don’t have to see Ronaldo’s smug, ‘forget the rest of my team-mates and look how great I am’ face.
Oh, and it would be nice to see Pepe miserable as well.
Off topic a bit… Please educate me as to why Ronaldo’s hated so much in these streets. I really do not understand. He certainly doesn’t fall in the same bracket as the Keanes, Terrys, Adebayors, Evras, Costas, van P*ssys, etc. Why?
I think it’s a tie between the fact he used to play for United and score important goals against us, and the fact that he’s an arrogant, preening, self-absorbed egotist who grows enraged with his teammates when they fail to feed him yet completely ignores them when they do. Personally I quite like him though. Did you know he used to dribble all the way round United’s training complex every day practising his skills? He’s an incredible example of what a man can achieve if he puts his mind to it. Perhaps that’s another reason to hate him though; his… Read more »
Yeah i rate Ronaldo too. This guy has worked very hard to get to his level and a lot of players could learn from his work ethic.
Ronaldo has zero team ethics though. Showed he was unhappy with Bale scoring for Real, stated Real would have been top of league if teammates were as good as him, hassled ref to give a red card to Rooney in WC while they were playing in same club.I love the last one though.
afaik he donates a lot of his wages to charity and cancer research…
Some people are just cunts, and Ronaldo happens to be a particularly overexposed and troublesome nuisance of a cunt. It breeds contempt, and quite right too. The moment we stop hating them, the cunts win.
Don’t Ramsey and Ozil have a 3rd place play of to contest before they go on holiday? Or was that discontinued?
No 3rd place play-off at the Euros – never has been since I first watched one (in 1992) so I think you might be remembering wrong.
Well thank god for that, 3rd place play offs were always dire.
Kos was a boss in the back, he was like a machine wouldn’t let any ball fall into that penalty box! Wouldnt give their players any space
Sad to see that when ur country is playing a semi final some ppl still booing (Giroud). Come on stand behind him, he deserves to wear that blue jersey, he’s full well earned it
God, i love your photo. Is Bendtner on the Juno expedition?
I never said Pluto was a planet, they took it out of context. It wasn’t until I travelled there myself and posted a selfie on Twitter proving Pluto to be nothing but a mere rock in space that this misunderstanding was put to bed.
Divided by countries. United by Arsenal
I’m sure I wasn’t the only one of us watching the TV during the post-game celebrations, looking for this kind of interaction among our boys. It was not surprising but really good to see. Great players and good guys. I feel lucky they are on the team I love.
in other news, how useless is Gotze…
Griezzmann would be an amazing signing but he just signed a big extension with Atletico. I’d offer Pogba/Suarez/Bale money for him! Go on Wenger, it will be an early retirement present for yourself 🙂
Girioud is decent but seems to perform better when under pressure. So a world class striker with pace would give him competition
one of the weirdest Europian tournaments ever after 2004s Greece I actually believe Portugal can be the underdog winners this time round
by the way if youve watch France you should know Giroud is still missing those obvious oppertunities they just dont care cause theyre doing fine. imagine France got knocked out to Germany and people would again see the sitters he missed to even kick the ball. he is a brilliant team player. never a proper finisher (or even dribbler)
people dissagreeing shows they believe Giroud’s strength is at his finishing and dribbling and not his team work. logic :))
Having supported Giroud, Koscielny and France since match day 1, I would be so gutted if they lose to Portugal… Oh god, not Portugal please…
So, that’s his French flag beard confirmed then?
Loved that photo
Dissapointing outcome to finals but you can’t begrudge Potrugal. I didn’t think they were entirely negative and had some chances (sans Cronaldo) And France simply had to do the business which they seem to anxious to. Giroud I thought should have been kept longer on the pitch as he links up so well with Greizzman. Ditto I felt Payet again withdrawn too early. Deschamp I felt should have retained the pair until full time before changing things around. He was too keen to see it through in regulation time. Coman came on and provided more width which I felt Payet… Read more »