Olivier Giroud says he’s hoping he can help France write a new chapter in their football history as they prepare for Thursday’s crunch EURO 2016 semi-final showdown with Germany.
Les Bleus haven’t beaten their continental neighbours in a competitive match since 1958 and head to the Stade Velodrome looking to avenge their quarter-final defeat at the 2014 World Cup, as well as historic semi-final losses in the same tournament in 1982 and 1986.
Full of confidence following his brace against Iceland – he now has three goals and two assists – Giroud admitted France have a tough task ahead but called on his compatriots to give them their full backing.
“We’re going to savour this victory,” said the 29-year-old. “We have a big match against the world champions. I’m pleased, nothing more than that. Pleased for the team, my family and the French public.
“We had a lot of fun and are very pleased with our performance. We will try and erase some of the defensive mistakes because against Germany we will be punished.
“Confident? No, Germany are the world champions and will be favourites but we want to write another chapter in the history of French football.
“We have a lot of desire to try and get our own back for what happened in the world cup. We beat them here in a friendly match, winning 2-0, but it will be completely different in Marseille.
“I hope the French public are as excitable in the stadium as they were tonight, and they support us all the way. We play a Euros semi-final in front of a home crowd. I’m proud of what we’re achieving. I hope we come out with the right result once again.”
It’s fair to say the French are getting increasingly excited at the prospect of a first major trophy since their triumph at the Euros in 2000.
Giroud, embraced by teammates, graces the cover of this morning’s L’Equipe under the headline ‘Almost Perfect’ – a far cry from the negativity the team – and Giroud in particular – had to bat off pre-tournament.
I’m a die Mannschaft’s fan and unfortunately Hummels is suspended, Gomez is out, Khedira and Schweinsteiger huge doubts. France have excellent players and they are all here… but now we’ll see what they are worth after all the “easy” games they have had.
And bravo to Olivier for his Euro. Maybe his problem at Arsenal is having Özil as provider! 😉
You forgot to add to Germany’s problems that Muller has been shit. Me, I want Ramsey and as many other Arsenal players in the final as possible. That means France vs Wales. Ramsey vs Koscielny, Giroud and even Sagna. Because of his holding play, aerial threat, flicks, Giroud will be the critical player if France are to beat Germany. Contrary to you, I think Germany’s bench are more of a threat than what I saw from Schweinsteger and co.
The problem is the obvious – never having a serious option to give him a proper rest!
He near always comes back with a good response after a bench rest.
He is having a good tournament, proving his qualities and all of that. His determination and tactical knowledge are amazing. Glad to have him on our side, but he should improve his performance with the red and white…
Giroud has a single problem at Arsenal: Losing form for a long time. Quality wise, he is fine. You see, with France, he nailed Martial to the bench. Would have done same to Vardy.
I wish he would stop scoring, has he forgotten he isn’t world class……….
😉
Not world class. Don’t care.
EEP. It hid my #sarcasm tag which I had cleverly written as an HTML anchor because I’m so witty and techno-literate.
am glad he is seizing the opportunity given to him. lets hope he keeps this form when he returns
Na Na Na Na Na Na. . . Oh shit! Ive forgotten how may Na’s i have to use
you missed just one, I believe it’s 7 Na’s 😀
That’s just the first line – it’s actually another 5.
*4
I meant not including the extra 1 srbistuta mentioned.
Good on him
Keep it up, get some rest over the summer, come back and get some more goals and keep showing people that you can be THE striker at Arsenal!
Hope Wenger’s theory that players who won a major tournament the previous summer, have a bad season is wrong. If true, that may happen to Ozil or Giroud and Koscielny or Ramsey and even Alexis.
Seeing he’s a confidence player.hoping he carries it onto the new season ahead
Kidnapp Griezmann from under the nose of the Dark Overlord aka Diego Simeone and pair with him with Giroud
Sign him up
Giroud doesn’t get enough credit. Hard-working and mentally strong. The problem is that people want him to be something he simply isn’t – a run-with-the-ball-from-midfield forward that beats 3 people and scores a la Henry. Not his game.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have that option as well but people need to stop bashing Giroud for that deficit.
I agree that Giroud simply doesn’t get enough credit for what he brings to the footballing
table, including the pre-assist he provided for Payet’s goal against Iceland.
But I bet that the teams’ he plays for – the Arsenal and the French national team – appreciate
him bigtime.
Ps: The semi-finals line up means that the Arsenal are guaranteed to have at least one player in the final of Euro 2016, and possibly more, depending upon the outcome of the games.
Giroud is good, yes. First choice main striker for a club of Arsaenal’s ambitions? NO. He should be a good substitute for a world class central striker which we still don’t have.
What a fickle lot the media are: from continuously jeering the guy to outright optimism that he will lead them to victory.
The minute he misses a chance against Germany, everyone will be on his back again. No one seems to divide opinion like Monsieur Giroud.
Giroud is very inconsistent. He had a good game yesterday, but let’s us act like he’s been putting up world class numbers and is “hated”. So it’s not about being fickle. We know he’s good for a 12m striker, but he isn’t underrated or whatever.
I think he had a rough second half of the season, but he’s been pretty consistent since he joined. A lot of that is down to being pretty injury-resistant.
’12-’13: 11 league goals
’13-’14: 16
’14-’15: 14
’15-’16: 16
That’s not that great for a first choice striker at a big team. Darren Bent has scored 24 in the league and double digits alot of times, yet no one thinks he’s world class. Same as benteke and defoe. Yet you wouldn’t say their underrated.
Since Giroud is a target man for Arsenal and one of his jobs is to hold up the ball and bring others into play you might want to consider his assists in the league as well. 12-13: 11g + 3a (2325 mins played) 13-14: 16g + 8a (3083m) 14-15: 14g + 3a (1867m) 15-16: 16g + 6a (2431m) Also Darren Bent scored 24 goals (and made 1 assist) in 09-10, playing 3393 mins. Back then he WAS quite hot as far as I recall (he was at 2 goals and 1 assist in 517mins in the Championship last season, never… Read more »
Oh please not this nonsense again. Using goals plus assists metric still doesn’t make him elite. If we did that with all strikers, Giroud would still lag behind.
Falcao is world-class and worth 50 millions, right ?
Prior to his injuries, Falcao was world class. Peak Giroud will never come close to the level he showed at Porto and Atletico.
Perhaps a certain Mesut Özil?
Or Aaron Ramsey, or on and on.
Let’s just be honest that we’re a hideously fickle support writ large. We cannot blame the media for our willingness to bring rotten veggies to the gallows. They’re just feeding us the meat we’re asking for (I say We as an overall observation).
A pretournament bat off does settle the nerves though.
Ooh err
Hope he will get a brace!!!
Giroud, Ozil and Sanchez will all miss the first few games of the season….If Wenger doesn’t pull his finger out and buy the striker we need soon, to integrate him into the team properly, we could be lagging behind and playing catch up by Sept.
Pretty much all of the supposedly world class strikers have played in one of the same tournaments as our trio and will be in exactly the same position.
So even should we buy someone, they will start the season late, and wont be properly integrated until Christmas.
A big boo to all d french boo boys
Despite all the stick he gets from Arsenal fans, if he didn’t already play for us, I’m sure people would be pushing for Wenger to sign him.
Aguero got 1 goal in 5 games at the Copa America… if he was an Arsenal player and Giroud was at Citeh the angry Gooner updates and tweets would write themselves as it is, we’re like to have to make do with what Euro 2016 would currently indicate is Europe’s premier all-round striker in terms of finishing and assists. I’ve always thought of him as a French Heskey, better at touches and flicks but ultimately at best a secondary striker. But that’s probably why I’m shouting stupid things in the stand rather than scouting or managing football teams. I’d happily… Read more »
I’m starting to think the reason there aren’t many ‘world class’ strikers around is because everyone makes them play on their own nowadays.
How much better did Graziano Pellè look when playing alongside another striker for example?
Maybe Conte’s on to something with that formation (doesn’t seem to be working badly for Juve even now). I’d be interested to see if he plays with two strikers at Chelsea next season.
do Chelsea even *have* two strikers?
Yea, one of the biggest cunts in world football (saying something given the amount to select from) and another chappie from France who will most certainly be joining that elite club. Fucking hate Chelsea.
By elite club I meant the W.F.C.C. (World. Football. Cunt. Club.) calling Chelsea an elite club would be like calling a prostitute your girlfriend. Doesn’t count if you pay for it.
Just to add to Fin’s point, they also have Loic Remy. I might be wrong but I think they’ve got some fella called Traore as well (I could look it up, but I’m not going to soil myself by looking at their website).
That could get you on some kind of criminal register.
I have never seen the Manure website (I don’t believe that Sp*rs have a website, I believe they use a fax machine)
I love websites of teams like Notts County, Carlisle Utd, Grimsby Town, Interesting clubs with history and class like The Arsenal, not cheap porn like that other lot.
Anorak!
Just finished watching the repeat and he had a great game. Let’s see how he performs against Germany.
Contrary to the system Arsenal plays, Giroud has played with Griezmann in the last few games, scoring 2, assisting 2. Maybe Arsene should play 442 more often, with a second striker right off Giroud (Sanchez?)
France plays with Payet on the wing as the creative hub, Ozil can do that job from the right, with a Xhaka-Ramsey/Cazorla partnership, and a physical runner (who?) from the left.
You are listening to pundits. Deschamp plays a 4-2-3-1 . Giroud brings in BOTH Payet and Greizzman on either flank which is what Giroud does?is suppose to do at Arsenal. Both wingers can float across the line with less fixed position or come in behind the striker/provide the extra body in the box when crosses come in from other flank. Italy does the same but 3 at the back and wing backs. But Pelle supports Eder and Gacherinni who pinch and float into the middle The reason why Italy uses 3 at the back and wing backs (which is also… Read more »
Problem with that system is that it doesn’t fit Ozil very well into it, and you need two really good wingers to make it work. Still … the thought of Giroud and Sanchez playing up front as a strike force is pretty damned attractive!
The thing between Giroud and tier 1 strikers is his inconsistency over a season. Otherwise we know he has the ability to perform at a world class level. Consistency is the hardest quality to achieve in football and Wenger is no stranger to the importance of consistency. (Don’t make a joke on 4th place please…) On another note, I hope Giroud, Koscielny and France win the Euros.
As pointed out above…Giroud seems quite consistent ’12-’13: 11 league goals ’13-’14: 16 ’14-’15: 14 ’15-’16: 16 Perhaps some would like to see…16,16,16,16 in order to be consistent. Giroud is consistently consistent about performing as his manager and team consistently ask and support him to do. He has streaks like every other ” consistent” forward ala Mueller, Aguero etc. He plays better rested, with consistent support and consistently works his ass off and makes others better. He consistently deserves to be consistently evaluated based on his strengths and what he is strong, very good in air and good feet, excellent… Read more »
Playing at the expected level every match is what Wenger calls consistency. Not the average numbers at the end which don’t tell the whole story.
Nonsense. He isn’t consistent enough and doesn’t score that much for a first choice at a big club.
Darren bent and defoe have had better numbers. He’s rated just right in my book. Decent striker.
As mentioned correctly by the less biased, He is “WORLD CLASS” whatever that means. Some people call Morata “world Class”. He isn’t even near Giroud in consistency or goal scoring level. Much like Per and Flamini, the people who criticise these players see only what they want to. They amplify every mistake and play down every achievement. If they only bother to watch the game again instead of getting influenced by others, they would see that they are pickig at mistakes Koscielny makes as well (instead of Per) or the fact that Elneny is not as effective as they deem… Read more »
Go Germany
People choose to see things as negative as they see fit. They are usually too petty to realise they have made a mistake or admit it. I’ve seen people saying online when confronted with Giroud’s excellent contribution in the Euros thus far that a tournament is not a good guage and that doesn’t anymore mean Lewandowski is not world class as much as GIroud is. There is some merit to that and the lithmus test is the season BUT there is no harm in a great tounament performance and players improve. The benefits of confidence to take into the new… Read more »
These are Giroud’s stats in the league since we signed him. 12/13- 11 in 34 13/14- 16 in 36 14/15- 14 in 29 15/16- 16 in 38 Now if you look at those numbers and honestly tell me those are “world class” numbers and numbers of an underrated player, then you are being ridiculous. Considering players like Lukaku and Benteke have had better numbers in a season at inferior teams, then no way in the world is giroud underrated. He is not world class. His stats for us prove it and he is also too inconsistent. Numbers like these do… Read more »
That’s now 20 goals from 53 games for France for Giroud, which is quite a bit better than Benzema’s 27 from 81.
Top striker for one of the top-4 nation in Europe ? And he’d probably be the top center-forward for the three other semi-finalists and most of the countries at the European championship. If he’s not World class, Giroud is at least European class.
Euro 2016 Centre Forwards
Harry Kane 0 goal 0 assist
Alvaro Morata 3 goals 0 assists
Mario Gomez 2 goals 0 assists
Robert Lewandowski 1 goal 0 assist
Christiano Ronaldo 2 goals 0 assist
Romelu Lukaku 2 goals 0 assist
Mario Mandzukic 0 goals 0 assists
Marco Arnautovic 0 goal 0 assists
Olivier Giroud 3 goals 2 assists
Post of the week. Impossible to argue with.
Vargas scored 6 at the copa, more than messi, Higuain and alexis. Guess that makes him world class.
Christiano Ronaldo 0 assists lol hardly a surprise – the ego maniac!!!!
So sad to see the comments saying giroud should be our number 1 striker still. He’s a good 12m striker but not a number one. So much mediocrity. He’s played a few good games at the euros and suddenly he’s world class. We have ozil in his prime and people want to stick the giroud, why not go and support mid table team if you don’t like success.
Anyone with half a brain can see he’s clearly not good enough to be first choice.
His numbers show it. The way some people are talking about him, you’d swear he had aguero type numbers.
He is a good 12m striker, but there are better target men and he isn’t underrated. Guess it’s the new hipster argument.
Penis envy?