France vs Albania report: Antoine Griezmann and Dimitri Payet to the rescue as hosts suffer frustrating night

France 2 Albania 0

Dimitri Payer celebrates his second goal in two matches (Getty)

Had Cristiano Ronaldo been watching, he would have noted how limited one of these sides were, how they celebrated their goal as they had won the European Championship. Their manager threw his water bottle into the air and pumped the air with his fists.

Their head of state, watching from the posh seats, leapt to his feet. From his Olympian heights, Ronaldo would have sneered at their “small mentality” and concluded they would win nothing in this tournament. So much for France.

They have qualified for the knockout phase of the tournament, although it took a glancing header from Antoine Griezmann in the last minute of normal time for them to secure this victory. There was another lovely goal from Dmitri Payet in the half-dozen minutes of stoppage time but Albania deserved rather more than a 2-0 defeat.

Yes, they had come to defend and the 12,000 who had come to support them would have gone away from the swooping curves of the Stade Velodrome happy with a barren goalless draw but the celebrations that swept Marseille had a hollow tinge to them.

The degree of pressure bearing down upon Didier Deschamps can be gauged from the fact that the last two men to manage France in a tournament they hosted have won it. Frankly, after two matches in Paris and Marseille, France do not look as if they believe they are capable of winning anything.

However astonishing Dimitri Payet’s goal that brought them victory against Romania, it did not disguise the nervousness or the timidity in the French display at the Stade de France. The call was for more pace and more verve and Deschamps brought in two 20-year-olds, Manchester United’s Anthony Martial and Kingsley Coman, who spent last season on loan to Bayern Munich from Juventus.

Paul Pogba, one of the hottest properties in European football, and Antoine Griezmann, who played for Atletico Madrid in last month’s European Cup final, were out.

Antoine Griezmann is mobbed by his team-mates after giving France the lead (Getty)

Since Pogba was brought on at half time to replace Martial and Griezmann came on in the 68th minute to replace Coman the idea cannot be said to be among Deschamps’s best. France, it has to be said, played far better with Pogba and Griezmann and ought to have taken the lead when Olivier Giroud sent Patrice Evra’s cross on to the post. Frankly, you wondered if they deserved to.

For 45 minutes France were dreadful and they were not much better after the restart, although Pogba should have driven Payet’s gorgeous cross into the back of the net a few minutes after the second half kicked off.

However, by then Albania ought to have been ahead as Ledian Memushaj dived to meet a well-timed cross and got his header in before Bacary Sagna. The ball struck the foot of Hugo Lloris’s post and dribbled out though Memushaj was lying on his back when the ball came towards him.

Coman had done rather better than Martial, which was not saying very much. He produced one fabulous turn, followed by an insipid cross and a brave header that flew past the post and that was that. Martial, who was making his first competitive start for France, would have envied Coman that.

Antoine Griezmann gives France the lead late on (Getty)

The majority of this Albanian side play for Italian teams and are managed by an Italian, Giovanni de Biasi. They therefore have some idea of how to defend. During the warm-up Evra took Martial to one side and gave him a long lecture. Not many of the veteran’s words appeared to have stuck.

Since France had played Albania twice while preparing for the European Championship, the two teams knew each other pretty well. Moreover, Albania had drawn one of those games in Rennes and beaten France in their own country. They knew they had it in them and as the game dragged on they became ever more certain. France, by contrast, look beset by indecision.