France topped the highly competitive Group of Death and the reigning World Cup champions will now begin knockout play at EURO 2020 against Switzerland at National Arena Bucharest on Monday.

Coverage of France vs. Switzerland begins at 2pm ET/11am PT on TSN1/4 and streaming on TSN.ca, the TSN App and TSN Direct.

After opening the tournament with a 1-0 victory over Germany, France gutted out draws against Hungary and Portugal to clinch first in Group F and earn their place in the Round of 16.

With advancement already secured thanks to the four points from their opening two fixtures, it was Karim Benzema who scored his first two goals for France since 2015 on either side of half in a wild round robin finale against Portugal to send his side to Romania against the Swiss.

“Those goals were important for Karim,” France head coach Didier Deschamps said after the match. “But he never stopped believing in himself and I’ve never stopped believing in him.”

Xherdan Shaqiri helped book Switzerland’s passage to Romania as he scored twice in their round robin finale victory over Turkey. The win allowed them to advance as one of the four best third-place teams as they missed out on second in Group A with an inferior goal difference to Wales, who they drew in their opener.

“We had to win and we played a good game,” said Shaqiri. “Of course there were one or two chances that we missed and maybe we could have scored one or two more goals, but it was a crucial performance from us and we’re happy with the result.”

Switzerland’s only loss so far at EURO 2020 came at the hands of Italy as they fell 3-0 in Rome.

France and Switzerland are no strangers to each other both on the international stage at large and at the European Championship.

The pair were drawn together in Group A at EURO 2016 in France and played to a 0-0 stalemate as they met on the final preliminary matchday. Thanks to the point, France topped the group and Switzerland grabbed the second qualifying spot in the Round of 16.

France would go on to be finalists at their home tournament, losing to Portugal in the final, while Switzerland were eliminated by Poland on penalties in their first knockout stage game.

Overall, the two countries have played 38 times, with France holding a W16-L12-D10 advantage.

The winner of this contest will meet the winner of Monday’s earlier game between Spain and Croatia in the quarterfinals.