France Loses in the Three-Way Championship, Deschamps: It's My Fault

JAKARTA - France coach Didier Deschamps admitted his mistake which led to defeat in the 2026 World Cup three-way championship. In the match at the Miami Stadium, United States, Sunday, July 19, 2026 WIB, France lost 6-4 in a 10-goal drama.

France did not come down with the best squad in the starting line up even though captain Kylian Mbappe still led the front line. But Ousmane Dembele and defender Jules Kounde were on the bench.

Even though they appeared with a different player composition, France still played offensively. Only England, which also overhauled the squad, was not inferior in the attacking game. In fact, the team coached by Thomas Tuchel immediately hit it so that they were 1-0 ahead when the match was only three minutes.

Midfielder Declan Rice broke Mike Maignan's goal. Next, Rice gave an assist that led defender Ezri Konsa to change the score to 2-0.

England continued to advance strongly through two goals from Bukayo Saka and closed the first half with a 4-0 lead.

"We were 4-0 down. We played really badly and it was a shame in the first half," Deschamps said, quoted by FIFA's website.

France only got up in the second half. Mbappe started the effort to chase the Three Lions' goal when the match was only three minutes in. Not stopping there, they managed to cut the goal deficit to 4-3 through Bradley Barcola and Mbappe who scored a brace.

However, France's efforts were thwarted by Saka's penalty, who scored a hat-trick and made England increase the lead to 5-3. Although Dembele was able to reduce the deficit to 5-4, Jude Bellingham finally closed the goal party in the match to 6-4.

"We lost, but we still fought and played well. We actually had the opportunity to equalize the score to 4-4 if we played more aggressively to put pressure on them," Deschamps said again.

Even though they tried, Mbappe et al. still couldn't catch up with the goal. Deschamps also stated that the defeat with six goals conceded was his mistake.

"We did what we were supposed to do. It's all my fault. I should have taken the necessary action in the first half, but I didn't," he said again.

"This defeat is still painful. To be honest, I hope we finish in third place," said Deschamps, who resigned as coach of the French national team after the World Cup.