France's record against Group A opponents
Monday, January 11, 2016
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Two of France's last three meetings with opening-night opponents Romania ended 0-0, and – more recently – Albania proved an even tougher nut to crack.
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Qualifying: Hosts
Record in centralised friendlies: P10 W7 D2 L1 F18 A6
EURO best: winners 1984, 2000
Last EURO: 2012 (quarter-finals)
EURO appearances: 8 (1960, 1984, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012)
France v Romania (21.00CET, 10 June, St-Denis)
EURO P6 W3 D3 L0 F6 A1
World Cup P2 W0 D2 L0 F3 A3
Friendlies P7 W4 D0 L3 F10 A11
- France and Romania drew 0-0 at UEFA EURO 2008 in Zurich before being paired together in the next two qualifying tournaments, for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and UEFA EURO 2012.
- Three of those four qualifying matches were also drawn, the exception being a 2-0 home win for France in October 2010 in which Loïc Rémy opened the scoring.
- France and Romania met competitively for the first time in EURO '96 fixtures, both in qualifying and at the finals. At the latter, a Christophe Dugarry goal decided the group game in Newcastle and gave Les Bleus a tenth successive victory under coach Aimé Jacquet.
France v Albania (21.00CET, 15 June, Marseille)
EURO P4 W4 D0 L0 F11 A1
World Cup P0 W0 D0 L0 F0 A0
Friendlies P2 W0 D1 L1 F1 A2
- Albania got the better of France in the two centralised friendlies played in conjunction with the UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying competition. They drew the first encounter 1-1 in Rennes before winning 1-0 at home in Elbasan thanks to a goal from Ergys Kaçe.
- France had won the four previous meetings – all UEFA European Championship qualifiers – with a goal difference of 11 for and one against.
- Les Bleus' biggest victory in that sequence was a 5-0 success at the Parc des Princes in EURO '92 qualifying, with Franck Sauzée and Jean-Pierre Papin both scoring twice.
- Albania's record cap holder Lorik Cana plays his club football in France at Nantes alongside international colleague Ermir Lenjani.
France v Switzerland (21.00CET, 19 June, Lille)
EURO P1 W1 D0 L0 F3 A1
World Cup P4 W1 D3 L0 F6 A3
Friendlies P32 W14 D6 L12 F58 A56
- The neighbouring countries had never met in a competitive fixture until the UEFA EURO 2004 finals – this after almost a century of friendly games, with 32 matches between 1905 and 2003.
- France won that encounter in Coimbra 3-1 to qualify for the EURO quarter-finals and eliminate the Swiss. Zinédine Zidane and Thierry Henry (two) scored the French goals, while Switzerland's consolation came from teenager Johan Vonlanthen, who became the UEFA European Championship's youngest ever marksman aged 18 years 141 days.
- The countries shared two draws en route to qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, where they were paired again and played out another stalemate in their opening group encounter in Stuttgart.
- It was a different story when they faced off in the group stage of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, France running out comprehensive 5-2 victors with five different goalscorers.