Newspapers in France react to ‘cruel’ World Cup final defeat

Newspapers in France have reacted with pride to the country’s loss to Argentina in the World Cup final, though many also acknowledged the “cruel” outcome of the thrilling penalty shootout.

Back-to-back World Cup triumphs were denied to France as Argentina and Lionel Messi prevailed in the Qatari final, winning 4-2 on penalties. The 2018 World Cup winners fought back to force extra time, with Kylian Mbappe scoring a remarkable hat-trick.

It looked like France hadn’t turned up as Argentina took a two-goal lead, but The Blues he responded when Mbappé scored twice in two minutes before equalizing again after extra time.

With France being champions four years ago and the result resulting in Messi winning the World Cup for the first time, national newspapers instead reflected on the contribution they had made to making the final the greatest of all time.

The sports newspaper The team it was with the headline, “Heads Held High” alongside a photo of Mbappe, after the 23-year-old became the same player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final.

the parisian declared “Proud of our Blues” while humanity he said they were the “champions of hearts” for playing their part in an “impressive” World Cup final.

nice morning said France’s defeat was “crazy and cruel” while Provence similarly it was with the “cruel” back cover. Paris Normandy focused on Mbappé with the headline “shooting star”.

the republican east reflected on the “broken dream” of France, while the echo republican He said the final had been “beautiful and cruel”.

The Journal of Saône-et-Loire he just said, “Thank you Blues!”

Meanwhile, France’s players said they would leave Qatar with their heads held high after fighting to the end against Argentina.

“We are very disappointed, of course, we gave it our all. We had to face a lot of obstacles during the competition, we didn’t give up anything,” defender Raphael Varane said.

“For an hour we weren’t in the game. We could have won too. I’m very proud of this group and of being French. We keep our heads up. We came back in this game when it was difficult.”

“We pushed and believed until the end. We almost turned the game around, which was not going well… There was mental strength in this group, a lot of heart. That allowed us to come back from this game. We’re disappointed but also proud.”