France deserves to be eliminated – Patrick Veira blasts Les Bleus

Former French international, Patrick Vieira has expressed annoyance over the entire French squad for showing 'no spirit, no togetherness and a poor attitude in their knockout game of the Euro 2020 against Switzerland.

The erstwhile Arsenal star was in no mood to sugar-coat the French’s shock Euro 2020 exit as he ripped into the attitude and mentality of the players and admitted that Switzerland deserved to beat them following their penalty shootout defeat.

The world champions were sent packing from the tournament on Monday night as they were stunned by Switzerland, who came back from 3-1 down to score an equalizer right at the death before keeping their cool to win 5-4 on penalties.

Yann Sommer was the hero for the Swiss as he pulled off a brilliant stop to save Kylian Mbappe’s decisive penalty and set up a quarter-final clash with the Spanish.

3 – France have been eliminated in their last 3 games in which they played extra time in major tournaments (EURO + World Cup), as many as in their first 11. Out. #FRASUI #EURO2020 pic.twitter.com/MU0J9KlKlj

— OptaJean (@OptaJean) June 28, 2021

“Tonight we have to give the credit to the Swiss team because I strongly believe that the best team won today,'

“The best team deserved to go through to the next round, and tonight it was the Swiss.

“I'm really disappointed with the attitude we had on the pitch. I think it was a poor French national team, there wasn't any kind of togetherness, there wasn't any kind of spirit. We didn't play as a team, so we didn't deserve to go to the next round.

“I think at times we played well, because of the individual quality of the players making a difference, but collectively we were far behind the Swiss,” Vieira said on ITV.

The French legend Vieira did not hold back about Didier Deschamps' side shortcomings and was forthright about the lack of character and personality they showed during the defeat. 

Vieria's former international team-mate Bixente Lizarazu, who won the Euros in 2000 with the national side, agreed that France under-performed and deserved to go out on balance.

'We didn't dominate this game. We totally missed the first half.

“It was better in the second with Benzema, Mbappe and Griezmann. Credit to the Swiss players, who showed so much mental strength. They remained true to their style,” Lizarazu added.

The Swiss will face the 2008 and 2012 European Champions – Spain in the quarter-finals on Friday – July 2nd at St. Petersburg.