Anticipation for the French national team was at an all-time high as they prepared for a World Cup semi-final on Bastille Day. With Kylian Mbappé celebrated as a national hero and the squad boasting an unbeaten record, fans crowded bars across the country, ready to celebrate a hopeful path to the final.
However, the atmosphere shifted dramatically, with streets emptying early on the night of the match. By Wednesday morning, French outlets were grappling with the bitter aftermath of their team’s defeat against Spain in Texas, admiring the opponents’ prowess while struggling to reconcile the fall from grace of Les Bleus.
The sports newspaper L’Équipe captured the sentiment with its headline “deserved more than this disaster of a game, this disaster of strategy and emotions”, highlighting a match that left fans feeling cheated. Vincent Duluc lamented that France deserved far better than a “feeling of barely really having played, and of betraying the magic of this American dream” He noted that the team lacked the performance necessary to justify their earlier successes, expressing a sense of betrayal by the very essence of the World Cup experience.
Duluc pointed out that the players seemed physically unprepared and made numerous technical errors, but more importantly, they appeared “mentally sunk by the emotional dimension of the match”
Reflecting on the team’s abrupt descent from expectations, Le Monde’s correspondent Alexandre Lemarié expressed sadness at the outcome. He described the loss as a “The fall to earth is as brutal as it is painful,” that marked a “The end of the American dream” especially in light of their prior performances.
This semi-final will be remembered for all the wrong reasons, noted the correspondent from the regional outlet La Voix du Nord, who remarked that it would “They fell from very, very high,” Ouest France featured the headline “Les Bleus, stifled, pummelled and incapable of three passes despite their promise from the start of the competition, faced players stronger than them,” alongside an image of Mbappé with his head in his hands. Libération echoed this sentiment, stating, “It’s sad. Infuriating. But that’s sport. The strongest won.”
In Le Figaro, Baptiste Desprez conveyed his disappointment but acknowledged Spain’s superior skills. He noted that “Les Bleus, stifled, pummelled and incapable of three passes despite their promise from the start of the competition, faced players stronger than them.” He concluded, “It’s sad. Infuriating. But that’s sport. The strongest won.”
