Deschamps defends his French team saying chances will become goals

June 26 – France manager Didier Deschamps has defended his side who finished second behind Austria in Group D following two draws, one victory and a single goal from the penalty spot. 

“I am not going to flog a dead horse – the group is united, we create chances, maybe there are other teams that have given off something different – the fact that we haven’t scored limits our performance, but we are where we wanted to be,” said Deschamps at a news conference.

“Let’s not take anything for granted. Our group was really difficult. We are going to try to learn from this.”

He added: “Look for those who were laughing with Austria, Netherlands sit in the third place.”

France had just seven shots on target from 20 attempts against Poland, a reflection of their poor goalscoring record in the first round.

They needed a spot kick to score the first goal at these finals. In their curtain raiser, Les Bleus snatched a winner through a Max Wober own goal against Austria and, without Kylian Mbappé, they failed to find the back of the net against the Netherlands.

Deschamps said: “Out of those seven, there were some beautiful saves. We need to improve. I’d be a lot more concerned if there were no chances, but obviously, there is room for improvement.”

Deschamps repeatedly stressed that the knockout phase is a different competition altogether from the group stages. He added: “You can’t always read a competition from the group stage, I am satisfied, we deserved to finish second.”

In the round of 16, Les Bleus, who won the European championship both in 1984 and 2000, will meet the runners-up of Group E, the quartet of Belgium, Ukraine, Romania and Slovakia, who all have three points going into the final round of matches.

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Source link : https://www.insideworldfootball.com/2024/06/25/deschamps-defends-french-team-saying-chances-will-become-goals/

Author : Paul Nicholson

Publish date : 2024-06-25 22:57:02

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