End of incredible Deschamps era as France exit World Cup with a whimper

To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video can not be played Figure caption, Spain into World Cup final after dominant victory over France By Emlyn Begley BBC Sport journalist Published 9 minutes ago Didier Deschamps' long, storied career with France will come to an end not how he would have wanted it - in Saturday's World Cup third-place play-off. The dreams of the 57-year-old, who won the World Cup as both a player (in 1998) and a manager (in 2018), winning it a third time are over after their 2-0 defeat by Spain in Tuesday's first semi-final. Having danced their way through the tournament with a series of impressive attacking displays, France managed just 10 shots all match in Dallas, their lowest total in the World Cup, with an expected goals of just 0.3 as they belied their pre-match tag of overwhelming favourites. Former France midfielder Patrick Viera told ITV: "They haven't shown up. I was expecting more. There was a big expectations for France to win the World Cup. "France will all disappointed by the result and the performance. All our top players went missing. Collectively we were really bad." It will be zero consolation but Deschamps, in charge since 2012, set a record in Dallas for most World Cup games managed - 26. He previous shared the mark of 25 with ex-West Germany boss Helmut Schon. Deschamps confirmed in January 2025 that he would step down after this summer's tournament and will mark his farewell game against the losers of England v Argentina in Miami on Saturday (22:00 BST). "It's not time to talk about the future," he said in his post-match news conference. "It is not important on a personal level whether I leave a competition in a semi-final or final. "I am extremely happy. I am very proud of everything we've done to reach this stage and to win a World Cup - to take the French team to the highest level. "I have been lucky as a player. I have enjoyed happy moments, today is not such a moment. We must accept it without forgetting everything we experienced." When the World Cup finishes, the football continues on BBC Sport Published 3 days ago World Cup 2026 knockout path How to watch the World Cup on the BBC and ITV Published 2 July 'He deserved to exit by the big door' Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Didier Deschamps reached two World Cup finals and a semi-final Deschamps is one of only three people to win the World Cup as a player and manager - alongside Brazil's Mario Zagallo and West Germany's Franz Beckenbauer. His longevity as manager is also rare in the current era - having led the national team for 14 years. He won 20 of his 26 World Cup games as France boss, only losing three times - including this defeat by Spain in Texas. As a player or manager he was involved in over half of the games France have ever won at World Cups - and the only two times they have lifted the trophy. Only three teams before now have reached the quarter-finals at least in four successive tournaments.