Patrick Vieira was in no mood to sugar-coat France’s shock Euro 2020 exit as he ripped into the attitude and mentality of the players and admitted that Switzerland deserved to beat them following their penalty shootout defeat.
The world champions were sent packing from the tournament on Monday night as they were stunned by Switzerland, who came back from 3-1 down to score an equaliser right at the death before keeping their cool to win 5-4 on penalties.
Yann Sommer was the hero for the Swiss as he pulled off a brilliant stop to save Kylian Mbappe’s decisive penalty and set up a quarter-final clash with Spain.
France legend Vieira did not hold back about Didier Deschamps’ side’s shortcomings and was forthright about the lack of character and personality they showed during the defeat.
‘Tonight we have to give the credit to the Swiss team, because I strongly believe that the best team won today,’ Vieira said on ITV.
‘The best team deserved to go through to the next round, and tonight it was the Swiss.
‘I’m really disappointed with the attitude we had on the pitch. I think it was a poor French national team, there wasn’t any kind of togetherness, there wasn’t any kind of spirit. We didn’t play as a team, so we didn’t deserve to go to the next round.
‘I think at times we played well, because of the individual quality of the players making a difference, but collectively we were far behind the Swiss.’
Vieria’s former international team-mate Bixente Lizarazu, who won the Euros in 2000 with the national side, agreed that France under-performed and deserved to go out on balance.
He added: ‘We didn’t dominate this game. We totally missed the first half. It was better in the second with Benzema, Mbappe and Griezmann. Credit to the Swiss players, who showed so much mental strength. They remained true to their style.’
Switzerland had been staring down the barrel with nine minutes to go, but Haris Seferovic scored his second of the night to pile on the pressure before Mario Gavranovic equalised to send their supporters into raptures.
And it was the Swiss who held their composure in the battle of nerves to win on penalties.
They will now meet Spain in the quarter-final after they overcame Croatia in an eight-goal thriller earlier on Monday.
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