Alan Shearer slams ‘frustrating’ France star after Euro 2024 semi-final defeat | Football

Didier Deschamps’ side took the lead through Randal Kolo Muani’s header but were stunned by a quickfire Spanish double as goals from Lamine Yamal and Dani Olmo turned the game on his head in the first half.

Kylian Mbappe and Theo Hernandez squandered huge opportunities to level the score in an absorbing second half but Spain held firm to secure their spot in Sunday’s showpiece.

As the French team licked their wounds at full-time, Shearer was quick to criticise the performance of Paris Saint-Germain forward Dembele who failed to provide an attacking thrust down the right side.

‘Dembele was probably more guilty than anyone in terms of being wasteful when he got into good positions,’ the former England striker said on BBC.

‘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.

‘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.’

Deschamps, meanwhile, lamented his side’s lack of efficiency in front of goal as they fell short on their second successive major championship final.

‘We were able to open the scoring, which was great. Spain mastered the game better than us, though,’ he said after the game

‘We didn’t perform that well, we didn’t play as vertically as I wanted. We pushed all the way to the end.

‘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.’

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