‘Collective failure’: French media pile in on World Cup semi-final defeat by Spain
PAIN GAME: France's head coach Didier Deschamps feeling the pain during their 2-0 defeat to Spain in Tuesday's World Cup semi-final in Arlington, Texas. Pic: Ronaldo Schmeidt, AFP/Getty
FRENCH fans’ expectations of their national team had been at an all-time high: a semi-final on Bastille Day, Kylian Mbappé a hero, a squad unbeaten. Across the country, bars had been packed with viewers spilling on to pavements, ready to crack open the fireworks ahead of hopes for the final.
But the night was unexpectedly subdued, streets cleared early. On Wednesday, the French media were still digesting the disappointment of defeat in a World Cup semi-final, praising Spain’s performance in Texas while struggling to comprehend Les Bleus’ fall from a high.
“Demolished” headlined the print edition of the French sports daily L’Équipe on its match report.
The paper also published their brutal player ratings, with some big stars given low scores. No player was given above a 5/10. Lucas Digne was given 2/10 for his role in giving away the Spain penalty, but Ousmane Dembele and Michael Olise also got the same score after ineffective displays in attack.
Kylian Mbappe was given a 3/10 - along with France head coach Didier Deschamps, who takes charge of his final match in charge of the national team in Saturday's third-place play-off.
France’s World Cup adventure “deserved more than this disaster of a game, this disaster of strategy and emotions”, wrote Vincent Duluc. He said France could not even complain about losing because of the “feeling of barely really having played, and of betraying the magic of this American dream”.
Duluc felt the team had been physically not up to it, that there were technical mistakes and, above all, the players had appeared “mentally sunk by the emotional dimension of the match”.
The players were left to contemplate the bleak consolation of a third-place playoff after their Bastille Day hopes were comprehensively extinguished.
"The players are devastated, but we have to be clear-headed: technically, we were second best," coach Didier Deschamps said. "That is on us.
"We lacked technical precision and energy. The Spanish are very good at breaking up moves by reading interceptions and passes. We would have liked to cause them more problems going forward.”
For a country that waited generations for its first World Cup, a second title 16 years later would herald the arrival of another Spanish golden era, this one inspired by Lamine Yamal but driven by one of the most complete collective teams in international football.
After the French team had been placed on the highest pedestal for weeks by fans back home, Le Monde’s correspondent Alexandre Lemarié was saddened. “The fall to earth is as brutal as it is painful,” the paper wrote. It was a “cruel disappointment”, particularly given the team’s performance up to now: “A collective failure.”
Le Parisien went with the headline "rude awakening" - saying the team "never found the key to break down the Spanish Armada".
This semi-final would be hard to forget for all the wrong reasons, wrote the correspondent for the regional northern paper, La Voix du Nord, saying it would “remain a nightmare”. Ouest France headlined its front page with “The end of the American dream” over a picture of Mbappé with his head in his hand. “They fell from very, very high,” was written in Libération.
In Le Figaro, Baptiste Desprez was disheartened but recognised Spain’s skill. “Les Bleus, stifled, pummelled and incapable of three passes despite their promise from the start of the competition, faced players stronger than them,” he wrote. “It’s sad. Infuriating. But that’s sport. The strongest won.”
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