‘I KNEW THIS WOULD BE DIFFICULT’ - DIDIER
ANTOINE GRIEZMANN revealed there were harsh words in the France dressing room as the Euro 2016 hosts staged a major fightback to edge past the Republic of Ireland into the quarter-finals. Trailing to Robbie Brady’s second-minute penalty as Ireland got off to the perfect start in Lyon, Griezmann spared French blushes as he struck twice within three second-half minutes to turn the tie before Shane Duffy’s 66thminute dismissal for a professional foul effectively ended the game as a contest. However, Griezmann admitted a few home truths were aired at halftime as Didier Deschamps’ players fought to stay in their own tournament. The Atletico Madrid star said: ‘We didn’t play well in the first half and we said things in the changing room. The coach said things, the players said things, but we were playing for France to give everything we had. ‘Our fans helped us and we are happy that we managed to get there.’ If nerves were frayed both on the pitch and in the stands at a packed Stade de Lyon, Griezmann insisted he was not fazed by the Republic’s lightning start, simply because he is used to the pressure of dealing in narrow victories. He said: ‘For me, it’s like this all year round with Atletico. We win matches 1-0 and we are suffering right until the end. ‘We were hoping it would be different here with the French team, but it’s been a bit similar. We knew it was going to be a complicated game, so we will enjoy it now. ‘We are going to look at what we did well and what we did not so well. We are going to keep training to improve.’ It took France 58 minutes to cancel out Brady’s nerveless strike after Paul Pogba had felled Shane Long inside the penalty area, but Griezmann, who had squandered a series of chances before the break, was lethal after it, heading home Bacary Sagna’s cross and then converting Olivier Giroud’s superb knock-down. Deschamps said: ‘I knew this match was going to be a difficult match and when Ireland took the lead, it made us a little bit more uncomfortable in the first half. ‘We did react well and we played with lots of enthusiasm from then, but we really had to dig deep to get through. ‘This team is really bringing a lot of emotion to the crowd and making everybody fall in love with them. There’s a lot of emotion here in Lyon and we really needed this great support that we had from the fans.’