Despite being considered favorites to win Euro 2020, France suffered shock elimination in the Round-of-16 at the hands of Switzerland. AS Roma manager Jose Mourinho has labelled Les Bleus arrogant in a scathing attack.
“France lost because they were arrogant No comparison between their squad and any other team. They have a better squad than Italy and England.
“Football punished them and deservedly. They started the game against Switzerland with arrogance. The way they played, the way they started [they] were arrogant. They were losing and they changed in time and they absolutely destroyed Switzerland in 20 amazing minutes. When they scored the third goal, football decided to punish them. Because of the way they celebrated, because of the way they reacted”
” Mourinho told TalkSPORT.
Mourinho had previously spoken about France’s shortcomings against Switzerland in an interview with TalkSPORT, during which he lamented Didier Deschamps’ decision to substitute Antoine Griezmann for Moussa Sissoko despite the threat of extra-time looming large.
During the match, France had wrestled back the lead from Switzerland despite going behind in the early stages of the match when Haris Seferovic nodded home a Steven Zuber cross. Les Bleus scored twice in quick succession in the second half through Karim Benzema before Paul Pogba seemingly put the game beyond any doubt with a long-range stunner.
Switzerland pulled one back through Seferovic before notching a surprise equalizer in the 89th minute. Mario Gavranovic scored the goal which would push the match into extra time, and subsequently, the penalty shootout, which the Swiss then won.
France’s exit sent shockwaves throughout the competition because of their perceived status as the favorites. Switzerland, however, were unable to kill two giants in a row and were eliminated in the quarter-final by Spain, via another shootout.
