MUNICH, JULY 10: France coach Didier Deschamps refused to point the finger at underperforming stars Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann after his team went out of Euro 2024 in the semi-finals to Spain on Tuesday.
"The responsibility is mine," Deschamps told reporters when asked about the impact on his team of poor performances at the tournament from both Frances captain and vice-captain.
"Against a Spain team of that quality, you need to be at your very best," he added after France lost 2-1 in the last-four clash in Munich despite taking the lead through Randal Kolo Muanis early opener.
"I am not looking for excuses, but when we began our preparation for the tournament we didn have Aurelien Tchouameni, Adrien Rabiot was injured, and (Dayot) Upamecano was not in the best shape.
"We dealt with the most pressing issues and tried to be as clinical as possible despite everything, but the step was maybe a bit too high for us even though we were lucky enough to open the scoring."
Kolo Muanis goal was the first scored by a France player in open play at the tournament, but Spain hit back to equalise through Lamine Yamal before Dani Olmo struck what proved to be the winner.
"Spain control the game really well. We were not direct enough even if we kept pushing until the end," Deschamps added after France lost a major tournament semi-final for the first time since Euro 96. "I can reproach the players for not giving everything. They were not all at 100 percent in this tournament for different reasons." —AFP
