Didier Deschamps admitted that France was the second best in the first stage of their Nations League quarterfinals collision with Croatia, but is confident to destroy their shortage with two goals.
France was beaten 2-0 on Thursday by Zlatko Dalic's Kant, with two first half goals from Ante Budimir and Ivan Perisic who cause the damage for the return bone this Sunday.
Indeed, the opener of Budmir was the fourth main objective that France admitted in their last three international competitions, just as much as they had their previous 53 games arrived.
Perisic also became the first player since Wayne Rooney of England in November 2015 to register a goal and an assist against France.
France struggled to threaten their opponents in the first half, with Dominik Livakovic made comfortable rescues from Ousmane Dembele and Kylian Mbappe.
The Deschamps team improved after the break, but could not say their pressure, and fell to back-to-back defeats against Croatia for the first time.
“We made a good start, but there were losing balls, technical errors. We gave the opponent opportunities,” Deschamps told TF1 after the game.
“The second half was much better. Maignan saved the penalty. Then it went on. We lost the ball. We did what we had to do in the second half without finding the efficiency.”
The result also saw that Croatia extended their undefeated run against France to three games, resulting in the streak of two games they had between June 2004 and March 2011 (D2).
France welcomes Croatia in three days in the Stade de France and Deschamps hopes to see offensive improvements when they meet again on Sunday.
“We have lost the first set, we are going to make sure we win the second home. Our first half was lower than what we were able to do,” added Deschamps.
“We will do everything we can to turn the situation. Everything we could give them in the first half, we were punished. There was way too much waste at a technical level.”
Deschamps also discussed the representation of Mbappe in the Poljud stadium, where the Real Madrid star made his first performance for his nation since a 3-1 defeat against Italy last September.
Mbappe ended the match with team -high Totals for Schoten on Target (four), touches in the opposition box (10) and the opportunities created (four).
“I found him very fit. He did not succeed in everything,” said Deschamps.
“He was very available, put a lot of effort into a layer of block. He could always do better, but was very available.”
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