Kylian Mbappe has described his performance at Euro 2024 as a failure following France’s 2-1 loss to Spain in the semi-final on Tuesday night.
Les Blues struggled to find their best form throughout the competition and ultimately fell to the superior firepower of the Spaniards, led by the extraordinary 16-year-old Lamine Yamal.
Despite providing the assist for Kolo Muani’s opening goal for France in the ninth minute, Mbappe had a subdued game. The Real Madrid forward was hampered by a broken nose sustained in the opening match against Austria, which forced him to miss the second game against the Netherlands.
Mbappe failed to score from open play in the competition, with his only goal coming from the penalty spot against Poland. The 25-year-old expressed his disappointment with his performances, as he and his teammates fell short of expectations in Germany.
“My competition? It was difficult, it was a failure. We had the ambition to be European champions; I had the ambition to be European champion. We aren’t that, so it’s a failure,” Mbappe said. “It’s football. We have to move on. It’s been a long year. I’m going to go on holiday and get some rest — that’ll do me a lot of good, and I’ll try and come back strongly.”
Despite ditching his nose mask against Spain, Mbappe was still unable to impress. Coach Didier Deschamps confirmed that the mask made life difficult for him.
“Wearing a mask was not easy for him, it restricted his vision and was an inconvenience,” Deschamps said. “There was a medical consultation with the staff and Kylian felt more at ease without the mask.”
Deschamps accepted responsibility for his team’s poor showing in the competition, which resulted in just one goal from open play. He refused to blame the players for struggling to find their goalscoring form.
“I am not going to pass on the responsibility, I am in charge and I am responsible,” Deschamps said. “We were facing a Spain side with such quality. Even though Antoine didn’t start, Kylian did and we tried to do our best with what we had. And we tried to be as efficient as possible. It was great because we took the lead, but this Spanish side masters the game so well. We didn’t perform so well in the end. We didn’t manage to play as vertically as I would have wished. We did push until the end. I will not say that my players did not give their all. But they did not all play at 100 per cent of their capacity in this Euros for several reasons.”
Deschamps will be hoping to get his players in their best form ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
