You know you’ve had one heck of a game when a former player of your rival club heaps praise on you.
Yes, It was Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs who told ITV sports that,
“He is a handful”
“I mean, he can hold the ball up, he scores goals, obviously physically he is very strong, but yeah he can be frustrating at times. But to be fair to him, in this tournament he has pitched in with a lot of important goals.”
The Arsenal target man opened the scoring with a clinical finish and scored his second with an easy header. It was also the 29-year-old who assisted Griezmann for his goal. He also had a pass accuracy of 65%, created a chance and won 75% of his tackles and 80% of his headers.
Giroud played the centre-forward role superbly, competing with Iceland’s physical centre-backs, holding the ball up and haring all over the pitch for his team.
Booed by the fans in a friendly before the tournament, yesterday night it all went away as the Stade de France gave him a standing ovation when Deschamps brought him off on the hour mark to keep him fresh for a semi-final against Germany.
During the 2015-16 season, the 29-year-old scored 16 goals and created 36 chances in 38 Premier League matches for Arsenal. In four matches for France at the 2016 European Championship so far, the Arsenal striker has scored three goals and created six chances.
Here are some of the reactions after a masterclass performance by the striker
Giroud absolutely dominating Iceland and producing more in 40 minutes than Harry Kane did in the whole tournament
— JK (@SkippyJay97) July 3, 2016
that giroud flick. utter filth, Arsenal players running this tournament 🙌🏾
— ⧨ (@ellagraham_xo) July 3, 2016
https://twitter.com/TikaTakaWilsh/status/749696712554516480
https://twitter.com/Memz_Dogi/status/749699444673810432
Do we need a new striker ? Is Giroud a World class striker ?
All these questions and debates will go on forever. But the need of the hour is to support him and Koscielny throughout the tournament and hope this moment of personal redemption brings out the fire in him and he takes France all the way to the victory.
The French Striker when asked about facing Germany said,
“Confident? No, Germany are the world champions and will be favourites but we want to write another chapter in the history of French football,” Giroud was quoted as saying by the Mirror.
“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.
Giroud also called on the fans to show the same kind of support shown against Iceland when they take on Germany.
France have finally broken the ice at Euro 2016 – and in the process they have sent world champions Germany an emphatic message ahead of their semi-final super-clash in Marseille on Thursday.
I know it’s a difficult one but who would you want to win ? Germany or France ? Koscielny and Giroud or Ozil ?
