PADERBORN, Germany : France’s critics were told to lay off the team by assistant coach Guy Stephan on Wednesday, who said they never expected to saunter to victory at the European Championship.Stephan, himself a former Senegal coach, said those who believed France would have any easy tournament in Germany were misguided. "We never said that we were going to have a cakewalk, that we were going to win every match.
I remember my reaction after the draw. I said ‘be careful’," he told a press conference.He did, however, admit that the pre-tournament favourites were not looking as sharp as they might."It's true that at the collective level, we can do better.
We must do better in terms of efficiency. But there are also good things. We had more possession, more chances than the opponents.
Either we see the bottle half full or half empty. I prefer to see it half full."Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann have been singled out for unfair criticism, Stephan added.“We all downplayed Mbappe’s broken nose a bit.