Anticipation among French fans for their national team soared to new heights as they entered the World Cup semi-final on Bastille Day. With Kylian Mbappé hailed as a hero and the squad remaining unbeaten, bars across the nation overflowed with supporters eager to celebrate a potential final appearance.
However, the atmosphere quickly shifted to one of disappointment as the night unfolded. By Wednesday morning, the French media was grappling with the harsh reality of their team’s defeat in Texas, commending Spain’s performance while struggling to comprehend the fall of Les Bleus.
The print edition of L’Équipe captured the sentiment with the stark headline “deserved more than this disaster of a game, this disaster of strategy and emotions” In his match report, Vincent Duluc expressed that France’s World Cup journey “feeling of barely really having played, and of betraying the magic of this American dream” He lamented that the team could not even voice complaints about their loss due to the “mentally sunk by the emotional dimension of the match”
Duluc noted that the players seemed physically unprepared, plagued by technical errors and, most importantly, appeared “The fall to earth is as brutal as it is painful,”
Le Monde’s correspondent, Alexandre Lemarié, articulated the disappointment felt after the team’s previous successes. He described the situation as a “The end of the American dream” and labeled it a “They fell from very, very high,” emphasizing how hard the fall felt after such high expectations.
This semi-final will be remembered for all the wrong reasons, according to La Voix du Nord’s correspondent, who stated that it would “Les Bleus, stifled, pummelled and incapable of three passes despite their promise from the start of the competition, faced players stronger than them,” Ouest France captured the sentiment with its front page declaring “It’s sad. Infuriating. But that’s sport. The strongest won.” featuring an image of Mbappé with his head in his hands. “They fell from very, very high,” read Libération’s commentary.
In Le Figaro, Baptiste Desprez reflected on the match with a sense of sadness but acknowledged Spain’s superiority. He wrote, “Les Bleus, stifled, pummelled and incapable of three passes despite their promise from the start of the competition, faced players stronger than them. It’s sad. Infuriating. But that’s sport. The strongest won.”
