Konate on the secret of Spain’s excellence. Ask the trainer

The French team experienced the bitterness of elimination on the eve of the finals of the 2026 World Cup, when… His loss to his Spanish counterpart, who forced an absolute advantage (0-2). In the semifinals, La Roja dramatically vaporized the Roosters’ dreams.

A few days after this shock, defender Ibrahima Konate gave a very realistic reading about the reasons for the defeat, the opponent’s impressive tactical level and the amount of pressure and expectations surrounding the French star.

Getting out of the semi-finals still casts a dark shadow over the camp of the world champion’s runner-up. After Spain dominated every aspect of the game, coach Didier Deschamps’ men suddenly woke up to a sudden end to their dream of a third star, despite entering the tournament as the top contenders for the title, but their ambitions ran into a strong, unforgiving Spanish wall.

Today, Friday, at a press conference before playing the third and fourth place matches against EnglandThe new defender of Real Madrid, who joined his ranks a few weeks ago, did not hide the bitterness he felt, as he said, according to the website.Miss Mercato“This defeat is very hard to swallow, we think about it every day from the final whistle. There is a feeling of regret and it’s very harsh… but after living through two World Cup experiences and losing in the final and semi-final, I can say that this defeat is less painful than the last one, but still painful.”

Commenting on the public pressure, Konate added: “We saw what they were talking about in France, some people saw that we were world champions even before our game. It’s a real blow but it’s part of football and we’ll pick our heads up again.”

Konate, who remained on the bench at this World Cup, reflected on the overwhelming superiority of Spain, who claimed their third consecutive major league win against France, saying: forward, as Lamin Yamal and Neko Williams were 100% at their peak performance.

“The Roosters defender continued his analysis of the last match. “They were obviously better than us in the last match. What is the reason? You have to ask the coach because we were down in many ways. Of course, as a substitute player, it’s easy to talk and judge, but we have to learn and understand why our plan didn’t work. They say that only one of them spoke and succeeded off the field (laughs), but this is not the end of our journey and we will face them again.

At the end of his remarks, the French defender wanted to set the record straight about the high expectations leading up to the tournament, saying that classifying France as an outlier was an analysis that lacked objectivity.

“For fans around the world, we were the number one favorite based on our history and individual talents. Fans believe that France is capable of fielding two or three teams and competing with them for the World Cup. But championships are decided by team spirit and individual details combined. Losing to Spain is no ordinary failure as they are the real European champions. because the journey requires the overcoming of many difficult steps.”