'Extremely happy' Deschamps gets the farewell game no-one wants

Didier Deschamps' long, storied career with France will come to an end not how he would have wanted it - in Saturday's World Cup third-place play-off.

The dreams of the 57-year-old, who won the World Cup as both a player (in 1998) and a manager (in 2018), winning it a third time are over after their 2-0 defeat by Spain in Tuesday's first semi-final.

Having danced their way through the tournament with a series of impressive attacking displays, France managed just 10 shots all match in Dallas, their lowest total in the World Cup, with an expected goals of just 0.3 as they belied their pre-match tag of overwhelming favourites.

Former France midfielder Patrick Viera told ITV: "They haven't shown up. I was expecting more. There was a big expectations for France to win the World Cup.

"France will all disappointed by the result and the performance. All our top players went missing. Collectively we were really bad."

While Mbappe admitted: "When you don't do what you're supposed to do in a World Cup semi-final, you don't win.

"Our goal was to press them high up the pitch to prevent them from settling into that slow, controlled rhythm -- because when it comes to controlling the game, they are better than us. We failed to do that."

It will be zero consolation but Deschamps, in charge since 2012, set a record in Dallas for most World Cup games managed - 26.

He previous shared the mark of 25 with ex-West Germany boss Helmut Schon.

Deschamps confirmed in January 2025 that he would step down after this summer's tournament and will mark his farewell game against the losers of England v Argentina in Miami on Saturday (22:00 BST).

"It's not time to talk about the future," he said in his post-match news conference. "It is not important on a personal level whether I leave a competition in a semi-final or final.

"I am extremely happy. I am very proud of everything we've done to reach this stage and to win a World Cup - to take the French team to the highest level.

"I have been lucky as a player. I have enjoyed happy moments, today is not such a moment. We must accept it without forgetting everything we experienced."