“In Football, You’re Either Good Or Not Good, I Wasn’t Good”: Mbappe

After France’s elimination from the UEFA Euro 2024, missing out the chance to compete in the finals, Kylian Mbappe admitted that he and his team were a failure in the tournament.

The Les Blues campaign was brought crashing to a halt in the semi-finals by Spain. “My ambition was to be a champion of Europe- but it was a failure”, the French captain said.

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Mbappe who astonished the footballing world with his hat-trick in the World Cup finals two years ago, however, struggled in this tournament to make an impact.

“In football, you are either good or not good. I wasn’t good. The Euro for me was a failure. It was a failure. We had the ambition to be European champions; I had the ambition to be a European champion. We aren’t that, so it’s a failure,” he added.

The Real Madrid forward’s tournament ended with just one goal, that too a penalty against Poland in the group phase. Mbappe’s game was undoubtably affected following his nose injury in the final moments of their opening match against Austria. The injury then forced him to miss the match against the Netherlands.

However, he returned to the games, wearing a black mask against Poland, Belgium and Portugal. And the mask clearly became a hurdle in the 25-year-old’s way. He had said that the mask limited his field of vision and made it difficult for him to play.

The French star at times appeared visibly limited by his injury. He was also taken off the field during the extra time in the match against Portugal after he was hit by a ball which knocked his mask from the face.

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Mbappe arrived in the semi-finals without a mask and assisted on Randall Kolo Munai’s opening goal in the ninth minute.

He had a total of 23 attempts at goal in Germany. Mbappé and his teammates will now need to wait at least another four years for a shot at becoming European champions, while Spain will advance to face either England or the Netherlands in Sunday’s final.