So, after coming home following a very tiring day of work, and needing to get some sleep before going to work that night, I happened to turn on the television, and saw that the Euro 2016 match between France and Albania was on.
Naturally, it remained on, and sleep waited, despite how tired I felt.
The game was nodded up in a scoreless tie. The problem with that is that France is trying to be an elite European football power, while Albania is literally the lowest rated nation in the tournament.
Albania did not play like the lowest rated nation, however. Time and again, their defense foiled France's usually strong offense. The strategy that Albania used seemed almost to be this sport's version of the rope a dope, allowing a strong opponent to tire itself out with the effort of exerting so much energy to impose one's will.
When I tuned in, it was the 54th minute, although I assumed that, eventually, France would manage to score a goal and put real pressure on Albania.
But the minutes passed. By around the 70th minute, nervousness was setting in. By the 75th minute, it felt like a tie was inevitable. By the 80th minute and beyond, I was beginning to worry that Albania might actually score, as they suddenly seemed to be pressing surprisingly strongly.
Still, the French defense held strong itself, preventing Albania's offense from scoring.
And then, suddenly, France was able to break through with a header just before extra time began, and the crowd went nuts. So did I.
Albania was clearly upset, and wanted to score in extra time. They put more men on offense, understandably, and that perhaps explains why France was able to net yet another goal in the extra session, to secure what appeared to be a deceptively solid win, according to the scoreboard, even though the game itself proved to actually be really, really tough.
With the win, France, the host country, becomes the first team to clinch advancing to the knock out round of the tournament. Albania, in the meantime, have played remarkably well in their first Euro tournament ever, although they find themselves on the edge of elimination.
I was at work, and took advantage of a quiet day to keep track of the score online. Like you, I was worried when France had yet to score (or, from what I gather, even come especially close) well into the second half. I was relieved however when they finally found a way. Hats off to Albania for a valiant effort. I'm not especially worried about how much they struggled. France also struggled to defeat Paraguay in the 1998 World Cup, despite being heavily favored in that match as well. Granted, different players and different era, but the mere fact that victory doesn't come easy against seemingly modest opponents doesn't necessarily warrant panic. Heck, Poland just managed to hold a heavily favored German team to a scoreless draw, and is likely at this point to advance to the second round. Anything can happen.
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