Lizarazu slams France after Spain defeat: "a huge individual collapse"

France has been eliminated from the 2026 World Cup. After losing 2-0 to Spain in the semi-final on Tuesday evening, the Blues will play the third-place match on Saturday against England or Argentina. Bixente Lizarazu, consultant and 1998 World Cup winner alongside Didier Deschamps, did not mince his words when assessing the performance.

“Spain’s technical mastery was superior to France’s. They deprived us of the ball. Collectively, technically, Spain is on another level. The passing game, the triangle play, the one-twos, this collective technical quality, it’s a different world compared to us,” he said.

Despite a good start to the match, the penalty conceded by Lucas Digne turned the tide. What followed confirmed Spanish dominance, without the French individuals managing to reverse the trend. That is precisely where Lizarazu drove the point home. “Where we could have hurt them was in attack with the quality of our strikers, Mbappé, Olise, Dembélé, and there we had a huge individual collapse. Olise was completely off the pace, Dembélé too.”

The former Bayern Munich left-back did not limit his criticism to the attacking sector. He also targeted Aurélien Tchouaméni, deemed too withdrawn in midfield. “We got crushed in the middle. Tchouaméni, I found him too reserved and at certain moments I saw him in a third centre-back position. How do you manage that when Rabiot is alone in the first half fighting and going after the ball?”

On the Real Madrid midfielder, Lizarazu was even more severe. “We were outnumbered in midfield because Aurélien Tchouaméni was in a really very deep position. You wondered if he wasn’t even managing his match.” A derailment that the former French international struggled to digest.