At the start of the Euros, France was a strong candidate to snatch the trophy from Portugal after losing the final against them in 2016. However, with France’s extraordinary team, they lost on penalties against the humble Swiss squad.
Before the Euro, the world was amazed by the team France put together for this competition. The surprise for this competition was the return of Karim Benzema, who had not been called up to the national team because of internal problems with the management and a teammate. But after six years, he came back and did very well.
What was most surprising about the French team in this competition was the poor performance of Mbappé in the four matches played by the European team.
After a regular season with PSG for the twenty-two-year-old world champion, Mbappé was expected to perform well after this was not the best of his seasons. This season PSG won the league cup but did not have an excellent season in Ligue 1, finishing second behind Lille, who had not won it for ten years. They also lost in the semi-finals of the Champions League against Manchester City.
At the start of the EuroCup, France was placed in the group of death alongside Portugal, Germany and Hungary. These four nations left us with a good picture of football after their respective countries. Where players like Mbappé had to shine, especially facing his idol Cristiano Ronaldo, where he showed he had a dull fuse.
France played well and finished top of the group and had to face Switzerland, who had won only one match in a regular group, in the round of 16.
Pending a stunning performance from Mbappé, we saw that Benzema’s return to the national team was better than expected, where he scored four goals and completely overshadowed the other strikers.
Throughout the match France vs Switzerland, we noticed the low level of Mbappé, even missing a one-on-one against the goalkeeper that would have sealed the French victory. But after the miss and Switzerland’s surprise equaliser at the last minute, it was extra time and then penalties. As the shoot-out progressed, the decisive penalty was taken by Mbappé, which was crucial for France to stay in the championship. And this is where the Swiss goalkeeper, Sommer, dressed up as a hero, saving the penalty and leaving Mbappé with a very poor performance in the competition.
After his inconsistent year, there was a lot of discussion about whether Mbappé could be considered the best young player of the moment after the great campaign that Haaland had this year. That’s why there has been a lot of questioning about it, leaving the young PSG player thinking a lot about his current level.
After France’s elimination, the striker of the reigning world champions wrote on his social media, “Very difficult to turn the page. The sadness is immense after this elimination; we couldn’t reach our goal. I’m devastated about the penalty. I wanted to help the team, but I failed. Sleep will be difficult, but unfortunately, it’s the ups and downs of this sport that I love so much. I know the fans have been disappointed, but I still want to thank them for their support and always believing in us. The most important thing will be to get up even stronger for the next dates. Congratulations and good luck to Switzerland.”
