The French football team lost 4:6 (0:4) in an impressive bronze match against England.
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In the first half, they looked hopeless, already trailing by four goals in the first 45 minutes, and it did not seem that D. Deschamps’ farewell match would end on a positive note.
However, after the break, everything turned 180 degrees. In the first 11 minutes, Kylian Mbappe scored two goals, Bradley Barcola added one, and the teams were separated by only a minimal difference.
Still, the French, who constantly stormed the goal, found no success. K. Mbappe’s shots flew wide, Michael Olise missed from very good positions. If you don’t score, they will.
The English did so in the 87th minute from the 11-meter mark. Bukayo Saka seemed to wipe away all the “Blues'” hopes of fighting for bronze. The referee added another seven minutes during which they could have saved themselves.
And France took advantage of that. In the 90+6 minute, Dayot Upamecano stole the ball in the middle of the field and passed it to Ousmane Dembele, who again reduced the deficit to a minimum.
However, a minute later, the final point was made by the English forward Jude Bellingham, and D. Deschamps’ farewell evening became a true emotional rollercoaster.
“It’s a loss, but we were down 0:4. We played the first half unacceptably,” said D. Deschamps, who had led the team since 2012, to journalists. “After the break, we reacted and started doing what we do well. We had two chances to equalize and it would have been 4:4. We started attacking even more actively.
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That’s exactly how we know how to play, but we didn’t do that in the first half. It’s my fault because, apparently, I didn’t do what was needed before the first half.”
57-year-old D. Deschamps won silver with France at the 2016 European Championship, won the World Cup in 2018, and was second in 2022. This year, they were driven by the same desires but finished fourth.
“It would have been better to finish the tournament in third place,” he said. “We came here with great ambitions. We managed to achieve quite a few good things.
We stumbled in the match against Spain, and they knew perfectly well how to play against us. This team has a lot of football quality. We certainly did not lack talent to achieve better results.”
How does the coach evaluate this championship?
“On a human level, it was a wonderful adventure. Those eight weeks were truly special. From a sporting perspective, the disappointment is definitely felt,” said D. Deschamps.
“We had the opportunity to stir emotions in tens of millions of French people. This is the World Cup – there is nothing more beautiful.”
According to reports, the former legendary French footballer Zinedine Zidane will take over the helm of the French team.
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