Switzerland scored all five penalties to knockout World Champions France in a shootout late on Monday.
The victory means Switzerland progresses to the EURO2020 quarterfinals.
With the weight of expectation on his shoulders France’s Kylian Mbappé took the fifth penalty. Yann Sommer saved the all-important penalty in Switzerland’s unlikely 5- 4 win.
Before the upset, Paul Pogba’s second-half strike – the third goal for France – was supposed to be an insurance goal to make sure the World Champions progressed to the EURO2020 quarterfinals.
But things went topsy-turvy.
After all at 3-1 ahead and only 10 minutes left who would have doubted France.
Against the run of play Switzerland scored a second goal and had a third disallowed for offside after a VAR check.
But with 10 seconds left Switzerland equalised. Captain Xhaka’s defense-splitting pass found Mario Gavranovi? who made no mistake with a sweet strike that beat Hugo Lloris in goal for France.
Haris Seferovi? had opened the scoring in the first half to put Switzerland in front. They went to the break leading 1-0.
When the Frenchmen returned for the second half they turned on the screws.
France’s Karim Benzema scored two goals in a four-minute blitz.
From then on Granit Xhaka’s team was on the back foot. The nerves were evident to the point of missing a penalty.
Ricardo Rodríguez’s tame shot from the spot was saved by Lloris.
But 10 minutes to the end Switzerland found a second wind and got two goals back to send the game to extra time.
Seferovi? scored his second for Swizterland before Mario Gavranovi? equalised.
In the earlier game, Croatia were eliminated by Spain in an 8-goal thriller.
Spain scored squandered a 3-1 lead and needed extra time to overcome Luka Modric’s Croatia.
Two goals without reply in extra time were enough for Spain to progress to the quarterfinals with a 5-3 score.
