France Score Late to Top Nigeria

 2-0 

France have certainly responded to their previous World Cup performance where they did not make it out of group play.  This time around France won Group E with wins over Honduras and Switzerland plus a draw to Ecuador.  Nigeria finish second in Group F to Argentina with only one win over Bosnia-Herzegovina.  Nigeria are the champions of Africa though and came out confident against France in their meeting in the round of 16.

Both teams were close to scoring in the first-half with Emmanuel Emenike actually putting the ball in the net.  Emenike attacked a cross and got the shot past French keeper Lloris, but he was offside and the goal did not count.  Paul Pogba also came close to scoring for France when he connected with a volley.  The shot went straight to keeper Enyeama who made the save and the first-half ended with no score.

Not long after half-time Nigeria were forced to make a change when Ogenyi Onazi was fouled by Matuidi.  Onazi got his ankle stepped on hard and had to come out on a stretcher.  France on the other hand made a tactical change and removed an ineffective Giroud for Antoine Griezmann.  This allowed Benzema to play as the lone striker and late in the match France took the lead.

A corner-kick was sent into the box by Valbuena and Nigerian keeper Enyeama came off his line to claim it.  He misjudged the cross though and could only get a finger tip on the ball.  The tipped ball went right to Pogba at the far-post and he scored with a free header on an open net (79').

Nigeria did not have much of a response to the late goal and a bit of bad luck gave France a second goal in stoppage-time.  Valbuena fired a cross towards the near-post in the direction of Griezmann.  Defender Yobo and keeper Enyeama tried to intervene on the attack, but the ball took an unlikely deflection off Yobo and ended up an Own-goal for Nigeria (90 +1').

France were the better team and definitely have more depth in their bench than the African side.  Nigeria played solid for nearly eighty minutes, but could not get on the scoreboard today.  France will have to wait until later today to find out if it will be Germany or the other African team Algeria that they will play in the quarter-finals.

Five Goals for France in Win Over Switzerland

 2-5 

European neighbors Switzerland and France met today in Group E showdown with both teams coming off a win in the first round.  France rather easily handled Honduras who finished the match with ten men, while Switzerland edged Ecuador in a stoppage-time comeback.  Today the Swiss again scored late, but not before France took a sizable lead.

Very early in the match Switzerland were forced to make a change when defender Steve Von Bergen was caught in the face by the boot of Olivier Giroud.  The foul seemed accidental, but Von Bergen was bleeding to much to continue.  Philippe Senderos came in to take up the defensive role and the game only got worse from there for the Swiss.

France scored two successive goals, the first coming from a set-piece.  Mathieu Valbuena played a corner to the back-post for Giroud.  With a header, Giroud scored and gave France the lead (17').  Swiss keeper Diego Benaglio got a hand to the shot and nearly made the save, but could not reject the shot.

On the ensuing kick-off Valon Behrami made a terrible error that doubled the lead for France.  Behrami  did not look where he was passing and gave the ball right to Benzema.  Making a run up the left side, Matuidi was played in-on-goal by Benzema and finished with a driven shot to near-post (18').

Before half-time France added another goal on a counter-attack following a Swiss corner-kick.  Giroud cleared the corner delivery off the line and stormed forward.  Varane picked out the run from Giroud and played the ball for him into space.  Valbuena made a run up the opposite side and Giroud found him at the far-post for a tap-in finish (40').

At the end of the first-half the Swiss had virtually nothing going for them and could have down more had keeper Benaglio not stopped the penalty kick from Benzema.  He was fouled in the box by Djourou, but failed to score from the spot.  Benzema did score in the second-half though to increase the lead.  Paul Pogba chipped a ball into the box that defender Senderos whiffed while trying to clear.  Because of the whiff Benzema had a free shot and scored through the legs of the keeper (67').

Moussa Sissoko added a final goal for France shortly after.  Benzema played him into space and Sissoko hit the shot first-time to back-post (73').

The game was clearly decided at that point, but the Swiss continued to play and scored a pair of late goals.  The first was a free-kick by Blerim Dzemaili.  Keeping the shot low, Dzemaili's shot slipped through the wall and inside the post to break up the clean-sheet (81').  Granit Xhaka then scored what was probably the most impressive goal of the match.  Captain Inler played a ball over the top of the defense and Xhaka hit the shot on the volley out of the air for a second Swiss goal (87').

With two wins in two matches, France earn six points and sit at the top of Group E.  This loss for the Swiss is not necessarily detrimental to their advancement.  With one win in hand and the next match against the weakest of the group, Honduras, Switzerland still have a good chance of reaching the knock-out round.  The two late goals also improves their chances if goal-differential is a deciding factor.