 "Didier Deschamps")
France has been underwhelmed and captain Kylian Mbapp is frustrated as he tries to adapt to wearing a vision-limiting face mask after breaking his nose in the opening match.
A boring France team? Coach Didier Deschamps doesn’t care. Tuesday’s European Championship semifinal between Spain and France is a matchup of very different styles.
One team is playing some of the most exciting soccer at Euro 2024, and the other is playing arguably the dullest. A team that has won all five of its matches, against a team that has won just two (excluding Friday’s penalty shootout victory over Portugal ).
A team that has scored a tournament high 11 goals, against a team whose players have yet to score from open play having notched two own goals and a penalty.
“If we’re boring you, you can watch something else, it doesn’t matter,” Deschamps said on Monday when asked about criticism of his team’s form. “It’s a very particular European Championship, with less goals than normal. We have the chance to make France happy, in a delicate situation for the country. If (others) are bored, I don’t really care,” he said.
France has been underwhelmed and captain Kylian Mbapp is frustrated as he tries to adapt to wearing a vision-limiting face mask after breaking his nose in the opening match.
Also being called out for France’s lack of a cutting edge in attack is Antoine Griezmann, who has played in two positions central midfield and on the right wing and was even dropped for the group closer against Poland.
“We have 100% blind faith in (Mbapp and Griezmann) we know they are players that can change a match in an instant,” midfielder Adrien Rabiot said on Monday.
“We will need them we are all very surprised as we know Antoine’s quality. I don’t know how to explain it, maybe he is a bit less well physically. We were expecting a lot more from Antoine but we are behind all of our players,” he added.
In contrast to France’s dour quarterfinal against Portugal which Les Bleus won 5-3 on penalties after the match ended 0-0 Spain beat Germany 2-1 in a dramatic encounter, won by a goal in the last minute of extra time.
That match pitted two of the most exciting teams in the tournament.
“We all try to make game plans that help you win,” Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said, “Our model is close to that of a beautiful show. We are a very attractive team, but here it is about winning. You have to be attractive, but also practical at this point what counts is the result.”
“What I value and analyze is the potential. And (France) is exceptional, fantastic. It has very high-level players and a very good team. I always enjoy football. France doesn’t bore me. We have different styles,” he added.
While France has been poor up front, it has been exceptional at the back, allowing just one goal, a retaken penalty by Poland’s Robert Lewandowski in the group stage.
Monday marked Deschamps’ 12-year anniversary on the France bench. There would be no better way to celebrate it than by getting Les Bleus to its fourth major final in eight years.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First Published: Jul 09 2024 | 1:06 PM IST
