France vs Switzerland heroics worthy of a Robert De Niro film, Yann Sommer jokes

Switzerland knocked tournament France out on penalties

Carl Markham
Tuesday 29 June 2021 12:22 BST
Euro 2020: Daily briefing

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Switzerland’s penalty shoot-out hero Yann Sommer joked he wanted Robert De Niro to play him in a movie about their famous win over France

The world champions and Euro 2020 favourites exited after Sommer saved Kylian Mbappe’s spot-kick after a 3-3 draw following extra time.

That sparked wild scenes as the Swiss celebrated winning their first knock-out tie in their tournament history and a first victory over France with Sommer in the spotlight.

“Yes, madness. I’ll give Robert De Niro a call to see if he wants to play me,” the goalkeeper told German broadcaster ZDF.

“We noticed that the French had a phase after the two goals (to put them 3-1 up) where they were slightly arrogant and thought they had won and we took advantage of it.”

After their 3-0 defeat to Italy in their second group match, under-pressure coach Vladimir Petkovic wrote an open letter to fans asking for their support.

Sommer said the team spirit within the Swiss camp was key to their comeback against France.

“I’m really proud of this team, how we came back, and how we played this game,” he told euro2020.com.

“We always believed and before the game we said ‘It doesn’t matter what happens in the game, it doesn’t matter if we are down or if it’s good or not, we’ll go until the end.

“We never give up and it’s our chance to go through after three or four times that we didn’t make it.

“It’s incredible how we played with heart, with a lot of morale, and it’s beautiful.

“Anything is possible but anything is always possible – always in football.

“We said as a team before the game ‘we are a small country, yes, but we have a lot of quality and experience in our squad’ and we showed it.”

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