Sportif, Didier Deschamps admits France squad look out of sorts

JAKARTA - France national team coach Didier Deschamps admitted that his team did not perform as usual when they were defeated by Spain 0-2 in the 2026 World Cup semi-final.

FIFA's website on Wednesday said Deschamps explained that this defeat was inevitable due to France's performance that did not reach its usual standard.

He assessed that there were several aspects of Kylian Mbappe et al. that did not appear in this match, which made Les Blues unable to do much.

"This is mainly our own fault. Our performance was not optimal and our attack was not as dangerous as it should have been," Deschamps said.

"We made some technical mistakes in the pass that could actually lead to a goal-scoring opportunity. That's the reality at the elite level, even though it hurts," he continued.

France lost 0-2 to Spain in the 2026 World Cup semi-final at the AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Tuesday local time, due to Mikel Oyarzabal's penalty goal and Pedro Porrok's shot.

This defeat makes France fail to return to the World Cup final after succeeding in two consecutive editions, 2018 (champion) and 2022 (second place).

Deschamps revealed that this defeat was very heavy for his players, especially there was a big ambition that Mbappe cs tried to achieve.

"It must be admitted that today our technical performance was a little below the usual standard when facing a team that really controlled the course of the match," explained Deschamps.

France, as reported by Antara, will still play a match for third place against England or Argentina at Hard Rock, Miami, this weekend.