Deschamps defends Mbappé as France crash out

Mbappé © Provided by The Guardian Photograph. Marko Đurica-Reuters via Microsoft News.

Didier Deschamps said that Kylian Mbappé was not to blame for Les Bleus’ surprise defeat against Switzerland after the Paris Saint-Germain forward’s crucial miss in the penalty shootout.

“Nobody can be annoyed with him,” said the France manager. “When you take the responsibility, it can happen. He is obviously very affected by it.”

Deschamps - who is under contract extension to lead France to next year’s World Cup in Qatar - refused to be drawn on his future afterwards.

“That is not the question,” he said. “There is a unity and solidarity in this squad. I am responsible, when things go badly, I am with them, they are with me. We will need to time to manage this. There are no magic formulas, there are balances for us to find in the future.”

It was Switzerland’s first knockout stage victory at a tournament since 1938 and the first time they have made the last eight since the 1954 World Cup which they hosted.

“Honestly I am still in shock,” said Yann Sommer, who saved Mbappé’s penalty.

“We showed courage, heart, we left everything out there. When you come back from two goals down against the world champions it is just unbelievable, and then to win on penalties, I could not be prouder of the way we did it.” – The Guardian via Microsoft News

BBC adds: Mbappe came into the tournament having scored 41 goals for club and country last season, including winning the French Cup with Paris St-Germain.

But his Euros campaign was a tournament to forget as he failed to score in any of the four games, with his 14 shots without netting is the most by any player to this point.

The 22-year-old had the responsibility of taking the fifth penalty against Switzerland, but saw a fairly tame effort superbly saved by Yann Sommer.

Eurosport.fr, in their player ratings, suggested Mbappe was in "the midst of a nightmare", while Chris Sutton said on BBC Radio 5 Live he had "fluffed his line in the biggest moment and didn't step up".

Former England defender Gary Neville said on ITV: "You just knew as Mbappe was walking up. You thought 'oh no'. He had a couple of moments in extra time but it's just not gone well for him.

"He has aspirations of being the best player in the world like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi but this is a little bump in the road for him. He will come through it.

"He is having a tough time in this tournament and it's a tough one for him to take as well as his French team."

Mbappe didn't impress the viewing public in the game either - his score of 4.44 on BBC Sport's Player Rater was above only the 4.33 for defender Clement Lenglet, who was substituted at half-time.

France boss Didier Deschamps said: "Kylian Mbappe is incredibly sad, as are all the players, but nobody can be upset with him as he took on the responsibility of taking the fifth penalty."