Didier Deschamps takes responsibility but wants to put things into context. The French team suffered a heavy defeat against Italy at the Parc des Princes (3-1) for its debut in the Nations League, after having produced a performance close to disaster.
“We have to be factual. We started very well, we did some very good things but we didn’t have the capacity to maintain it throughout the match,” said the coach of the Blues in reference to Bradley Barcola’s historic goal after 12 seconds of play. “In the effort and the counter-effort, the opponent hurt us with mistakes on our part. We have the quality, we are capable of doing good things with the ball. Against a well-grouped Italian team, by leaving space, they hurt us.”
“We are far from being at our maximum”
The TF1 journalists had to wait quite a while before seeing the coach. A sign of anger in the locker room? “I always told them what I thought,” replied Didier Deschamps. “I have always been and still am the one responsible for what is happening. I make sure to tell them what I think and what I see. I knew very well that, given the situation of each player, we are far from being at our best. In the second half, we lost a few too many duels. We made mistakes in recovery only to lose it again later. We gave them more ammunition. Keeping the opponent under pressure for 90 minutes is complicated. We didn’t have the means to do it. We remained open without having enough energy to make the effort to defend.”
The former OM coach had a word for Bradley Barcola, the only French scorer of the evening and one of the promises displayed on the pitch by the French clan: “He is young, but he is full of confidence in a period where he has very good efficiency. He has experienced the Euro, he is in constant progression with enormous progress. When the opponent is so low, it is necessarily more difficult.” See you on Monday against Belgium, who did not miss their debut against Israel (3-1).
- RMC Sport
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