A petition to replay the Euro 2020 game between France and Switzerland has reportedly received more than 270,000 signatures.
The tense Round of 16 affair came on the heels of an insane eight-goal thriller between Croatia and Spain, leaving many to believe there was no chance this neighbourly battle could live up to the hype.
Instead, they followed down the same path with an encounter that left many calling Monday the best single day of Euros football in the history of the tournament.
The Swiss went 1-0 up before missing a penalty, prompting a strong comeback from Les Bleus to put them 3-1 up. Then, in the final 10 minutes of the game, the underdogs rallied with two goals to send the tie into extra time.
The French went close again with a few nice opportunities across both halves of ET but they couldn’t prevent it from going to penalties. Then, after nine were successfully converted, Yann Sommer produced an outstanding save to deny Kylian Mbappe and send the world champions crashing out in a stunning upset.
It didn’t seem to end there, though, with French website Les Lignes Bougent garnering over 270,000 signatures for a petition that implied Sommer’s foot wasn’t on the line for the save.
Alas, after a further “investigation”, LLB released the following statement on the incident.
“More than 270,000 people have signed this petition “Replay the France – Switzerland match of Euro 2020”. Our servers almost exploded! There are many press relays, both in France and in Switzerland.
“UEFA has even been officially challenged on the subject to find out its position. However, when you look at it more closely, the goalkeeper had his foot on the line … and besides many media publish the photo.
“We spoke with the author of the petition to find out the follow-up he wanted to give to his petition and he indicated to us that he preferred to stop it. So let’s be good players. The Swiss have well deserved their victory, and the French have not been unworthy by fighting to the end! Let us continue together to carry the voice of citizens!”
Switzerland will hope to keep their fairytale going tonight when they play Spain in their Euro 2020 quarter-final.
Featured image credit: Getty
