Didier Deschamps bid farewell to the French national team with a chaotic 6-4 defeat to England in their World Cup bronze medal match.
Les Bleus started the competition as one of the favourites and maintained that tag with some impressive performances before a uncharacteristically flat performance in a one-side 2-0 semi-final defeat to a dominant Spain.
In Miami on Saturday, they found themselves trailing by four at half-time to a more motivated England team before a late rally the second half that proved to be in vain.
Declan Rice opened the scoring for Thomas Tuchel’s charges after just two minutes. Ezri Konsa’s header on 18 minutes and a first-half brace from Bukayo Saka put England four-nil up at the break.
Kylian Mbappe (48′, 66′) and Bradley Barcola (54′) reduced the deficit to just one goal but Saka though completed his hat-trick from the spot and Jude Bellingham (90+8′) also weighed in with a late goal to negate a late strike from Ousmane Dembele (90+6′).
“It is a defeat, but we were 4-0 down. We produced an unacceptable first half,” Deschamps said on Reuters.
“There was a reaction, with the things we know how to do well. We had two chances to make it 4-4, but we pushed forward a little more.
“That is what we know how to do, but we didn’t do it. It is my fault because I must not have done what was needed in the first half.”
“It would have been better to finish third,” Deschamps added. “We came here with a lot of ambition. We managed to do quite a few positive things.
“We failed in our match against Spain and they knew how to perform against us. This is a group with footballing quality. There was enough talent to get results.
“On a human level, it was a beautiful adventure. Eight weeks, it was beautiful.
“The disappointment is there on a sporting level. We had the opportunity to create emotions for tens of millions of French people. It is the World Cup, there is nothing more beautiful.”
