L’Equipe are known for pulling no punches when it comes to their player ratings, and the French newspaper have delivered again after last night’s World Cup final.
Argentina eventually beat France on penalties after a thrilling 3-3 draw, with Lionel Messi scoring twice and finally bagging this trophy that eluded him for so long, while Kylian Mbappe also lit up the final with a hat-trick.
Still, there were some pretty major flops out there as well, and L’Equipe have decided that two of their players weren’t even worthy of scores.
It probably won’t come as a huge surprise that those two players were Ousmane Dembele and Olivier Giroud, who truly didn’t show up for this big game.
Giroud barely touched the ball before being subbed off by Didier Deschamps before half time, while Dembele was ineffective, losing the ball a lot, and also gave away a penalty with some rash decision-making.
On Dembele, L’Equipe wrote: “Forty minutes unworthy of a World Cup final. Defensively, the Barcelona man was far too far from his direct opponents.
“He was put in the wind by Angel Di Maria before committing a questionable foul in the area to give away a penalty.
“Offensively, all of his first checks ended up at the opposing feet.”
On Giroud, they added: “The great story of Olivier Giroud in the France team could end on these 41 minutes disputed and these poor 12 balls touched.
“The striker did not see the light of day against an Argentine defence which dominated him even in the air, usually a strong point of Giroud.
“He also got tired going to press at times very high.”