French forward and star Antoine Griezmann admits that Spain were better than France in the semi finals of Euro 2024. He expressed disappointment over France’s failure to close down Lamine Yamal. However, he was also surprised to see how good the 16 year old was on the pitch and applauded him.
On 10th July, Spain knocked France out of the UEFA Euro 2024 in the semi-finals. Spain were the favourites in this match given how France were not playing their best football. Amongst all the grown up men, the man of the match was Spain’s 16 year old Lamine Yamal of Barcelona. Antoine Griezmann applauded the Spanish winger but also thought that the France lacked concentration and could have stopped him from scoring the equaliser. He seemed to be very annoyed during the post-match press.
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Dissecting Spain vs France
In the semi-finals of the Euro, Spain defeated France 2-1 and qualified for the finals of the competition. Didier Deschamps made a change in their squad with Griezmann starting on the bench and chose Kolo Muani to start the match. Initially, it was the correct call from the manager as Kolo Muani scored France’s only goal in that match from Kylian Mbappe’s assist. The French team were leading 1-0 and this was their first goal from open play in this competition. But after a few minutes, Lamine Yamal took everything under his control and scored a remarkable goal from outside the box. It didn’t take much time for Spain to lead thanks to an amazing goal from RB Leipzig’s Dani Olmo.
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Antoine Griezmann was later introduced in the match. However, he did not have enough time to have an impact and help France in some way and survive. Griezmann looked really annoyed was fuming. He admitted than Spain were dominant and beat France in every department.
“They were better than us. We knew they could hit the ball well from distance and we let them shoot from distance. We knew Lamine is left-footed and we let him hit it with his left foot.”
Griezmann on how good Spain and Lamine Yamal were
“No excuses about having legs cut off or anything, they played extra time too. They were better in everything.”
Griezmann added
Was Deschamps right in not playing Griezmann from the start?
Many are questioning Deschamps’s decision of making Griezmann sit on the bench for most of the game. France lacked creativity in their midfield against Spain. When Spain had creative playmakers like Fabian Ruiz and Dani Olmo, France had no one. They were playing a counter attacking, box-to-box style of gameplay. This can be the reason why they weren’t able to use the potentials of their forwards much. Kylian Mbappe did not perform his best. The one who scared every Argentine in the last World Cup final didn’t have much impact in this game except his assist. He states that his Euro was a total failure.
With the elimination of France, Oliver Giroud retires from international football. This was his final game wearing the French jersey. He retires as the highest goalscorer ever for France in football history
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