“Who came into this room before me? The player of the match,” Didier Deschamps said matter-of-factly in an air-conditioned media suite in the BVB Stadion. He was alluding to the 33-year-old Poland reserve goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski, a surprise protagonist who repelled seven of France’s eight shots on target in the yellow arachnid-like arena that belongs to Borussia Dortmund.
About half an hour after France had to settle for a draw and second place in Group D, it was Deschamps’s way of contextualising another strange, soul-searching night in front of goal, labouring the point that it was not for the want of trying. Les Bleus totalled 48 shots in the group stage but their wait to score a goal from open play goes on into the last 16. Their next opponents will be wary of a flood.
