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The Roosters suffer their biggest loss in the Deschamps era
France missed out on a third successive World Cup finals after losing to Spain with two goals in the semi-finals of the 2026 edition, in a game that saw the end of a string of historic runs for coach Didier Deschamps’ national team.
Spain ended France’s title ambitions by inflicting one of the heaviest defeats at a major tournament in the Deschamps era to book their place in the final and await the winner of England and Argentina, with the Roosters settling for the bronze medal.
Deschamps’ era with France is expected to end at the end of the current tournament, with Zinedine Zidane taking over as his successor.
According to Opta Stats, France suffered their first defeat in the knockout stages of the World Cup since losing 1-0 to Germany in the 2014 quarter-finals, ending a run of 11 consecutive matches without defeat in the knockout stages of the World Cup.
11. France lost their first World Cup match against Germany since the quarter-finals in 2014, ending a run of 11 such matches.
Adios. pic.twitter.com/AOQSSg1qqK
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) July 14, 2026
For its part, Statesfoot explained that France were knocked out of the World Cup semi-finals for the first time since their 2-0 defeat by West Germany in 1986.
🇫🇷 France was eliminated for the first time since June 25, 1986 in the semi-finals against Germany (0-2). #FRAESP
— Stats Foot (@Statsdufoot) July 14, 2026
Statsfoot added that the loss to Spain was France’s heaviest at a major tournament under coach Didier Deschamps, and was also the first two-goal loss at a major tournament since losing to Spain by the same scoreline in the 2012 European Nations Cup quarter-finals.
Didier Deschamps led France to their biggest defeat in a major tournament.
France had not lost by 2 goals in a major tournament since June 23, 2012 against Spain at the EURO (0-2). #FRAESP
— Stats Foot (@Statsdufoot) July 14, 2026
He also noted that France’s loss to Spain was also France’s heaviest defeat in the knockout stages of the World Cup since their 2-0 loss to West Germany in the 1986 World Cup semi-finals.
🇫🇷 France suffered its biggest defeat against Germany in the knockout stage of the World Cup since June 25, 1986 (0-2). #FRAESP
— Stats Foot (@Statsdufoot) July 14, 2026
The negative numbers didn’t stop there, however, with Statsfoot explaining that France have failed to score since the match against Croatia on March 20, 2025.
Also, the “roosters” team has not tasted defeat in all competitions, as in 2025 they lost to Spain in the semi-finals of the European League of Nations with a score of 4-5.
France failed to score against Croatia for the first time since March 20, 2025.
France had not lost a League of Nations match against Spain on June 5, 2025 (5-4). #FRAESP
— Stats Foot (@Statsdufoot) July 14, 2026
