“Complete lack of energy and quality” - Alan Shearer slams France superstar for being ‘frustrating’ in Euro 2024 semi-final defeat
France were left licking their wounds as Spain came from behind to beat them 2-1 in the Euro 2024 semi-final on Tuesday (July 10). Former player Alan Shearer was critical of Frenchman Ousmane Dembele for being careless with his passing.
Despite going 1-0 up within the first 10 minutes, France leaked goals in tandem as Spain took the lead within the first half, courtesy of goals from Lamine Yamal and Dani Olmo.
During the halftime show, BBC's Alan Shearer didn't hold back and slammed the Paris Saint-German star for his subpar passing and lack of creativity while attacking.
"Dembele was probably more guilty than anyone in terms of being wasteful when he got into good positions," Shearer said.
Ousmane Dembele was especially inaccurate at providing crosses into the penalty box despite running up the flank with the ball at his feet and getting into some potentially lucrative positions. France overloaded the penalty box several times, but the cross from Dembele was hardly ever accurate. Most of them either went out of the field or were easily caught by Unai Simon.
"It’s so frustrating when you get there and you’re delivering balls [into the box] which aren’t good time after time. When you’re in that position, you have to be expected to do better than what he’s done – he had plenty of guys in there and he kept hitting crosses straight at the keeper," explained Alan Shearer.
Ousmane Dembele had just three out of 16 accurate crosses, a paltry accuracy of 18.75% in the Euro 2024 semi-final clash.
"I was getting frustrated and angry up here myself, so you can imagine how they were feeling out there on the pitch. There was just a complete lack of energy and quality from him tonight," concluded the former England striker.
Coach Didier Deschamps discusses France's problem after underwhelming display versus Spain in Euro 2024
France were underwhelming throughout Euro 2024 and only managed to score one goal from open play. In their semi-final clash against Spain, the team looked to attack in certain stretches but lacked the lethality to break open a world-class defense.
After the game, France manager Didier Deschamps spoke about the team's performance and lamented their lack of efficiency in front of the goal.
"We were able to open the scoring, which was great. Spain mastered the game better than us, though. We didn’t perform that well, we didn’t play as vertically as I wanted. We pushed all the way to the end," said Deschamps (via OneFootball).
Furthermore, he explained that the team needed to be better and cool-minded in front of the goal to maintain proper efficiency, adding that they had lacked it throughout Euro 2024.
"You need to be as relaxed as possible and hit the target. This is what we’ve been missing. Nevertheless, we made it to the semi-final and found a way to score, thanks to Kolo [Muani]. Of course, it would have been better if we’d been as efficient as we had been before," concluded Deschamps.
While France are left with nothing but to pack their bags and head home, Spain will wait for the game between England and Netherlands (July 10) to find out who they will face in the final of Euro 2024 on Sunday (July 14).