By Aiwu Esele
Mbappe couldn’t believe it as Keeper, Yann Sommer saved the kick that sent world Champion, France out of Euro 2020
What a shocking sight. Kylian Mbappe who could not put his reputation as formidable player to use during the 120 minutes game during which he missed unpardonable scoring chances, had the last opportunity in the energy sapping sapping encounter between France and Switzerland to redeemed his image. He flopped and with that missed opportunity sent France out of Euro 2020 quarterfinals.
He was left to take the decisive penalty after Switzerland had scored their five kicks. Mbapp stepped forward, all eyes on him and goalkeeper Yann Sommer dived high to his right to keep the penalty out.
Sommer himself was not sure and so he checked with the assistant referee before running off to celebrate in the corner.
Unbelievable for Mbappe who had to keep off tension by hitting the turf with his hands on his head.
France the world champions have fallen at the first knockout stage.
Unable to bear the loss, Mbappe walked down the tunnel on his own.
Switzerland had led the match 1-0 at half time and with the resumption of play sustained the pressure and got a penalty which would probably had sealed France’s fate but the skipper, Rodriguez direction was properly interpreted by goal keeper Loris who caught it. From that 55 minute penalty miss , France turned on the heat and got two fantastic goals in two minutes through a Kareem Benzema header, twice Switzerland responded quickly and switched to counter attacking and scored twice in final 10 minutes to force extra time and penalties
And Mbappe misses decisive penalty in shootout
Switzerland will face Spain in quarter-finals in St Petersburg on Friday.
Hear Switzerland goalkeeper Yann Sommer: “What a game, what a night of football. The end is crazy, it is beautiful but how we came back during the game from two goals down, I am really proud of this team.
“We always believed, we always said if we are down we will go to the end and not give up. It was our chance to go through. it is incredible how we played.
“Anything is possible but that is always in football. We believed it, we are a small country but we have a lot of quality and have experience in our squad. We showed it.”
