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Deschamps regrets France's lack of efficiency in goalless draw
France played out the first goalless draw of Euro 2024 with the Netherlands on Friday, and missed star man Kylian Mbappe in the final third.
Didier Deschamps bemoaned France's lack of a clinical edge as they played out a 0-0 draw with the Netherlands on Friday.
Les Bleus, without talisman Kylian Mbappe due to a broken nose he suffered against Austria in their opener, struggled in front of goal, managing only three shots on target out of their 15.
Xavi Simons thought he had broken the deadlock in the 69th minute, only to have it chalked off due to Denzel Dumfries impeding Mike Maignan from an offside position.
After a wasteful performance in the final third, Deschamps was not willing to speculate if the situation would have been different if Mbappe played.
"The only regret is the efficiency," Deschamps told M6. "It was a match with great intensity, a Dutch team more cautious than usual.
"Compared to the opponent, we had no less 36 hours less recovery. We responded on an athletic level despite everything we did everything we had to do to recover as much as possible but hey..."
"Kylian, it's Kylian, we're not going to compare him to the others.
"[Bradley] Barcola has qualities, that's why he's there, he does good things in training. But he's never been with us. In a match like that, it's never easy to put it at the end to make the difference, but the team was rather well-balanced, we were able to create danger and defend well."
France could have sealed their place in the round of 16 with a win in Leipzig, though they will likely qualify anyway after moving onto four points with this draw.
Antoine Griezmann had the most shots for France (five), including two big chances, and he admitted that the side needed to work on their finishing ahead of their final match against Poland on Tuesday.
"I have two 'opportunities' where it stays in my feet. It's a real shame," Griezmann told beIN Sports.
"That's what we're missing in the two matches, we have to work on it. Defensively, we were good. Tactically, we were good. We're missing that little goal; it's going to happen."