France coach Didier Deschamps has put up his shield and buckler in defence of Kylian Mbappé after another boring display against Belgium, Soccernet.football reports.
A late Jan Vertonghen own-goal handed France a scrappy 1-0 victory over Belgium inside the Merkur Spiel-Arena in Düsseldorf as Les Bleus advanced to the quarterfinals of Euro 2024.
Despite boasting 56 per cent of the ball possession, France were poor again as only two of their 18 shots were on target.
The biggest underachiever yet again was star man Mbappe, who completed zero crosses and fired four shots off target.
Still, Deschamps is convinced that Mbappé is only taking his time to adapt to the new face mask he now spots following an injury last week.
France are in the quarterfinals of Euro 2024 having won only two matches and scored three goals, two of which are own goals.
However, Deschamps is not concerned about his team’s lack of creativity.
“An own goal, if it’s deflected, means someone had to shoot,” he said.
“If that finishes in the net, so be it. The best teams are here [at this EURO] and the games are high intensity. We’ve always got the capability to score more. It’s been tricky for us since the start of the EURO, but we’ve always had chances. Although we want to push things, we don’t want this to be a psychological barrier for us.”
With the victory over Belgium, France will now prepare to face the winner of the clash between Portugal and Slovenia in the quarters.
