Late goals from France break Albanian hearts

Substitute Griezmann broke stubborn Albanian resistance with a 90th-minute header in Marseille.

Two matches, two defeats, no goals.
Those are Albania's sobering statistics at the European Championship after its 2-0 loss to France at Stade Velodrome on Wednesday. But they don't quite tell the full story of the team's first foray in a major competition.
Few teams have entered a European Championship with less pedigree, but like other another minnow at Euro 2016 - Iceland - Albania has proved hard to crack. And, on Wednesday night, Albania goalkeeper Etrit Berisha fought to contain his emotions as the Balkan minnows' hopes of remaining in Euro 2016 were dented by two last-gasp goal by France in Group A rivals .
A determined Albania were hanging on for a scoreless draw at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille until substitute Antoine Griezmann broke the deadlock for the hosts on 90 minutes. Dmitri Payet, who hit the winner against Romania on Friday, added the finishing touch when he picked up a loose ball outside the area to curl a shot past Berisha in the sixth minute of injury time. Berisha admitted the dressing room mood was one of bitter disappointment as Albania's hopes of remaining in the competition suffered a huge blow. "We took it really badly because up until the goals we'd had a good match and we can't do that in the final minutes," Berisha, who plays for Lazio in Italy, said. w"It's not the first time we've lost a game in the final minutes, so I'm a little bit annoyed."
Albania's only chance of avoiding an early trip home is to finish third and hope they are good enough to claim one of the four spots awarded to the best third-place finishers.
"Now we can't do anything about it, we have to concentrate on our next game. We have to win to have any chance of finishing among the best third-placed sides," Berisha said.
"We would have been happy with a point because the France team is fully of quality players. We created a few chances, we might even have won, but we've taken nothing from the game."
For France, it's becoming quite a theme: early nerves, laborious first halves, chances spurned and rising star Payet popping up with a spectacular late goal. "It's true that I managed to make the difference again," Payet said. "Things went well again for me tonight." This time, his strike deep into injury time did not win the game like his last-minute goal in Friday's 2-1 win against Romania did as forward Antoine Griezmann had already headed his team ahead in the 90th.
"I would prefer us to break the deadlock a little earlier," France coach Didier Deschamps said.