No-one talks about 'you made this mistake', in a team effort, admits Didier Deschamps
Didier Deschamps has revealed that "no-one is really angry" with Kylian Mbappe following the penalty miss against Switzerland which knocked France out of the Euros. Les Bleus saw their European campaign ended by Switzerland, with a PSG superstar missing a decisive spot-kick in a shootout.
The World Cup winners of 2018, France suffered an absolute setback in their attempt to win the Euros. Considered one of the absolute favourites to lift the trophy following their world cup win, France was supposed to build on their successful campaign and add another feather to their cap by winning the Euros. But the runners up of the 2016 campaign suffered a measly defeat against the hands of a resilient Switzerland.
Despite leading 3-1 with only nine minutes remaining, Les Bleus were taken all the way to a shootout and saw 22-year-old superstar Mbappe fluff his lines from 12 yards at the end of a goalless tournament for him. Deschamps has admitted that although it will be a tough pill to swallow, in the end, it’s a group effort and its shortcomings should not reflect on the mistakes of a single player.
"The whole group is united in the dressing room. No one talks about 'you made this mistake' or 'you made that mistake.' Kylian knows his responsibility. Of course, Kylian, even if he didn’t score a goal, he was decisive in many actions that we had, then he took the responsibility to take this penalty and no one is really angry with him. I talked to the players, we know the strength of this squad, of this team, we had many magnificent moments together today.
"It really hurts, there’s a lot of sadness and, well, there were many things that we did really well in this match, but not everything and if we think too much about this match it won’t help too much. This Euro was really difficult, it’s not an excuse, and now there’s the last European champion and the last world champion who have to go home, it hurts but we have to accept it," Deschamps said, reported by Goal.