Didier Deschamps says he is not frustrated since their first objective is achieved after a 1-1 draw with Poland in their final Euro 2024 group game.
Kylian Mbappe netted his first goal at the European Championships from the penalty spot, but Les Bleus were denied all three points by Robert Lewandowski, who also netted from 12 yards on the second attempt.
While France s place in the knockout stage was confirmed pre-match, after a win over Austria and a goalless draw with the Netherlands, Deschamps side needed to win to top the group.
Instead, they finished second behind Austria, who got an impressive 3-2 victory over the Netherlands in the other group game.
They will now face the runners-up of the tightly contested Group E in the last 16, and though France have not hit the heights they are capable of so far, Deschamps remains calm.
I m not frustrated, he told TF1. The goal was to take first place, but we had to win.
From the moment we don t win, we have to accept it. We did what we had to do, we had opportunities. We have to appreciate what we did.
France 1-1 Poland
France had more touches in the opposition box in this match than any team in a single match in the tournament (55 to Poland s 7), but it wasn t enough to win Group D.
— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst)
The first objective is achieved even if we don t have the place we wanted. We could have done better in terms of efficiency, even if the goalkeeper made some good saves. We weren t able to take cover.
France have scored just twice so far in the tournament, with Mbappe the first Frenchman to hit the back of the net after Maximilian Wober s own goal sealed their win over Austria.
Unlike his head coach, Adrien Rabiot bemoaned the team s struggle to finish their chances as they failed to see out the victory.
The evening was frustrating, we didn t do enough to win tonight, the midfielder said. We had everything between our feet, and we didn t do enough.
The goalkeeper was good, we had a good opposition, but we have to do much better to score, we still have this problem of efficiency. We have not achieved the objective of first place.
