The French media didn’t just criticize their national team after Tuesday night’s 2-0 loss to Spain in the World Cup semifinals. They eviscerated them. L’Equipe, the country’s most influential sports paper, handed out ratings that looked more like exam scores from a bad semester. Lucas Digne got a 2 out of 10. So did Michael Olise and Ousmane Dembele. Kylian Mbappe, the captain and all-time leading scorer for France, managed a 3. Nobody cracked a 6.
Spain didn’t just win in Dallas. They made France look like a team that had never played together. A first-half penalty from Mikel Oyarzabal after Digne fouled Lamine Yamal put Spain ahead. Pedro Porro’s second-half strike sealed it. France didn’t register a shot on goal until the 81st minute. By then, the game was already over and everyone knew it.
L’Equipe didn’t hold back
The paper’s back page showed Mbappe looking up at the sky with the headline ‘Etoile Filante’ — Shooting Star. Which is generous, considering he spent most of the night isolated and ineffective. Le Parisien went with ‘A Rude Awakening,’ which is about as blunt as it gets for a team that came in as tournament favorites after rolling through Morocco, Paraguay and Sweden.
On Digne, L’Equipe wrote: ‘Between his uncontrolled header and his foul on Lamine Yamal, he made two mistakes that resulted in a penalty.’ The Aston Villa defender, who’s reportedly close to a £10 million move to PSG, kicked Yamal while trying to clear his own header. It was sloppy. It was costly. And it summed up France’s night.
Dembele, the Ballon d’Or winner, got roasted too. ‘Nothing helped: the Ballon d’Or winner did almost everything wrong,’ L’Equipe wrote. ‘As the minutes ticked by, he gradually faded until he became almost invisible. A huge disappointment.’ Olise, who had been brilliant in earlier rounds, ‘fell very low this time.’
Mbappe took the blame
To his credit, Mbappe didn’t hide. Speaking to Fox after the game, he said: ‘At the end of the day, you take all the glory when you win. When you don’t win, you have to take s**t. It’s part of the game. It’s part of my life.’ He added: ‘As a captain, I have to take all the responsibility, and I have no problem with that.’
That’s the right thing to say. But it doesn’t change the fact that France’s attack — the unit everyone feared coming into this tournament — managed three shots on target total. Their first one came with nine minutes left in regulation. Against Spain. In a World Cup semifinal.
This was also Didier Deschamps’ last game as manager after 14 years. Zinedine Zidane is set to take over, and the transition now includes a third-place play-off in Miami on Saturday night. That game suddenly feels like a consolation prize nobody wants.
France entered the tournament as legit contenders. They leave with a 2 out of 10 from their own press and a lot of questions about what went wrong. Mbappe can take all the responsibility he wants. The scoreboard already said everything.
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