France's World Cup exit branded a 'failure' by legends

The world champions, aiming to become the first side to win back-to-back-to-back World Cup finals, lost 2-0 in Dallas, despite their headline-grabbing star Kylian Mbappé, who they were unable to effectively utilize throughout their dismal performance in the semi-finals. Former Chelsea man and 1998 World Cup winner, Frank Leboeuf was amongst the most prominent French footballing figures to voice his disapproval of the Les Bleus’ efforts.

“That was a failure.

That game wasn’t a good game. Spain deserved 100% to win. We didn’t see anything good coming from France. We didn’t find any chances for them to score.

Spain were above everywhere, hats off to the Spanish team,” said the ex-defender.

“A World Cup is hard because you can’t run fast at the beginning and slow down close to the final. That’s what happened to the French team.” The Numbers of a Frustrating Semi-Final for Mbappé Despite starting the tournament as arguably one of the tournament’s biggest stars, Mbappé found himself ineffectively isolated against Spain’s well-drilled defence, stifling any attempt for the PSG star to influence the game.

According to match data: Kylian Mbappé attempted just 32 passes and completed only 18 of them – a stark contrast to the likes of Pedri (135 passes completed) and Rodri (124 passes completed). He lost 12 of the 15 duels he competed in. France captain admits they were outplayed Mbappé accepted that France had been outdone by the Spanish side, conceding his nation were technically superior to them in this particular match.

“There was a lack of communication on the press.

We didn’t play the game we wanted, technically, tactically. When you don’t do what you have to do in a World Cup semifinal, you don’t win. They are better than us at controlling a game… We were too sloppy technically,” Mbappé said in his post-match press conference.

How Spain ended France’s World Cup dreams The game’s decisive moments were as follows: 22′ (pen) – Mikel Oyarzabal: coolly slotted the penalty down to the right after Maignan went to ground early following Yamal’s trickery inside the box; 58′ – Pedro Porro: the right-back put the tie to bed with a sublime strike into the bottom corner following a slick one-two with Dani Olmo.

The 2-0 defeat sees Les Bleus’ defence of their crown end in the semi-final, and represents France’s earliest World Cup exit since 2014. It’s a painful end to a spectacular era for the French national team under Deschamps; having won the tournament in 2018 and finished as runner-ups in the 2022 tournament, France have now run out of steam at the last hurdle.

Spain beat France to reach FIFA World Cup final

Deschamps out, Zidane to step in The immediate aftermath of the semi-final loss saw head coach Didier Deschamps confirm his departure, bringing an end to a 14-year stint at the helm – a spell that yielded a World Cup title in both 1998 as a player and 2018 as a manager.

Real Madrid legend Zinedine Zidane is the most likely candidate to take over from Deschamps.