While England’s fans and media wallow in self-pity after another turgid affair at Euro 2024, things are not much better for France, another of the pre-tournament favourites who have flattered to deceive in Germany.
Before England’s sleep-inducing goalless draw with Slovenia, Didier Deschamps and his players stuttered to a 1-1 draw against already eliminated Poland. In mitigation, the team was rotated slightly and there was some controversy surrounding the penalty scored by Robert Lewandowski. But France have not looked convincing and finished second in their group behind Ralph Rangnick’s far more energetic and fluid Austria.
Inevitably, there has been plenty of reaction to a disappointing group stage in France. How, though, has it compared to the verdict on England’s equally uninspiring start to the tournament?
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L’Equipe, renowned for their often scathing reviews, were fairly measured, posting the headline ‘No worries but questions arise among the Blues’. Their player ratings from the Poland match included 5/10s for Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele and Dayot Upemacano, as well as a 4/10 for Aurelien Tchouameni and 3/10 for Adrien Rabiot.
Deschamps, not unlike Southgate, was measured in his reaction to the match: “I’m not disappointed, sincerely not at all. We did what we needed to do, we created a lot of chances and led in the game. We tried until the end. We are where we want to be. We were in a very difficult group: Austria lost against us and won against the Netherlands. We deserve to be second."
Perhaps because they have had more recent success, there were no boos from French supporters in Dortmund. But fans of both England and France will be expecting much better from their respective teams in the knockout stages.
More Euro 2024 stories
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We also have a list of the Euro 2024 favourites, with best odds on nations to win European Championship in Germany, while these are the best Euros games ever and these are the best pundits ever.
