Patrice Evra has urged his France team-mates to “wake up” and be wary of the threat posed by Iceland in the quarter-final at the Stade de France on Sunday after admitting his side’s happy knack of scoring late goals will not last for ever.
France have required late rallies to see off Romania and Albania and had to come from a goal down to beat Republic of Ireland ,but they still go into the match as the overwhelming favourites. Evra admitted his surprise that Iceland had beaten England and is wary of falling into the trap of underestimating the team ranked 34th in the world.
The Juventus left-back cited France’s slow starts as cause for concern, not least because Iceland effectively had the last-16 game against England won after 18 minutes. “Physically we’re in a good place, even if we’re snatching wins late in the game every time,” Evra said. “I just think we’re really crazy … that’s what we said when we won the other day [against Ireland]. But the further you go in a tournament, the harder it gets.
“We need to be wary because if we carry on like this, at some point we won’t turn it round. That could be against Iceland. We have to wake up earlier in games. We’re not starting matches well enough and end up having to react rather than being more proactive. This team has tended to respond when its backs are against the wall but our luck will run out if we carry on like that. We need to attack this game and not wait to react.
“We have to have confidence in our football so my message would be, ‘Play without pressure”. Yes, this game on Sunday is important because we have to reach the semi-finals. It won’t be easy but we’re at home and all of us, the players and the manager, want to achieve something big here. We reached the quarter-finals in Brazil [at the 2014 World Cup]. Here we want to go further.”
There had been a presumption the romantic story of Iceland’s first experience of a major finals would be checked by Roy Hodgson’s England. “Yes, I thought it was logical England would win that game,” Evra said. “Many people underestimate the smaller nations, thinking they’re inferior teams, but we know already from this tournament that playing them can be very difficult.
“After our win against the Irish I was asked questions by English journalists implying their team would be our next opponent. It was almost as if they assumed England had already qualified for the quarters. I told them: ‘We’re there, but let’s wait and see.’ What annoys me is that people concentrated so much on where England had gone wrong and that took credit away from Iceland’s performance that night. You should never underestimate your opponent.”
The former Manchester United player was asked about the threat posed by Iceland, who so unsettled Austria and England with Aron Gunnarson’s long throws. Evra, who confirmed he is fit to play despite damaging four fingers in training on Wednesday, recalled having to deal with Stoke City’s Rory Delap using the same tactic. “Ah, the famous javelin thrower,” he said. “In Manchester we’d train with that tactic in mind. Iceland have scored twice from long throws, I think, so it is an asset for them. But their teamwork and approach don’t just extend to that.
“They’ve worked together for four or five years now, they know how they play and they trust each other. We can’t fall into the trap of thinking they’re just a threat from long throws. In all the matches they’ve played here, they’ve been solid. When I played in England I faced Gunnarson, so I know him first-hand. My team-mates also know their players.
“But do we feel lucky to be playing Iceland in the quarter-finals rather than England? No. We have to stop talk like that. If you listened to talk like that, Croatia would already be the European champions [after their performances in the group stage], but they’ve gone home. If we beat Iceland we’ll play either Italy or Germany. I don’t think you can call that lucky. But anything can happen in football.”
