Deschamps: ‘France Were Lucky to Score, but Spain Were Superior’

France’s head coach Didier Deschamps admitted that Spain played better in the Euro 2024 semifinal and deserved to advance to the final.

France suffered a bitter defeat against Spain in the Euro 2024 semifinal, officially ending their quest for the prestigious title. Although they caused some difficulties for their opponents, the quality of the Spanish players came through at the right moment and led to Les Bleus’ exit from the tournament.

After the match, Didier Deschamps acknowledged that his team was fortunate to take the lead and praised Spain for their superior performance.

The 55-year-old coach said: “Spain showed that they are a great team tonight. We were lucky to open the scoring, but it created difficulties for us because they were superior in controlling the game. Tonight, they demonstrated their abilities.

Receiving two goals in four minutes made things difficult for us. We came back a bit too late, perhaps due to a lack of proactivity, which led to wasted opportunities, particularly in building attacking situations.”

In addition, Deschamps declined to comment on whether Spain was the strongest team in the tournament, while praising his players’ performances in the competition.

He added: “Is Spain the best team in this tournament? I don’t think this match alone can summarize Euro 2024. We faced a very excellent Spanish team that confirmed what they had done before. We could have done a few things better against a team that controlled the game as much as they did. We lacked proactivity in our counter-attacking play.

We are not a cautious or defensive team. We are a team that defended very well but was not sharp enough in attack. We had to adapt. For various reasons, we could not make the impact we usually do, and we had to adapt to compete within our limits.”

In the match, despite taking an early lead through Kolo Muani, France failed to maintain their advantage as Lamine Yamal and Dani Olmo scored for Spain in the first half. Despite bringing on quality attacking players, Les Bleus could not find the net again, ultimately losing 1-2.

This is the second consecutive time Deschamps’ team has failed to reach the Euro final, while it is the first time La Roja has reached the final in 12 years.