‘No excuses’ – Captain Wendie Renard rues missed France chances in Germany Euro 2022 defeat

France captain Wendie Renard said there were “no excuses” after her side’s 2-1 defeat to Germany in the Euro 2022 semi-finals on Wednesday night.

The result sees Germany through to the final at Wembley Stadium, and after the match, Renard said: “Of course, there is disappointment and frustration because we are at least 90 minutes away from the start [of the final] and we did not get the goal.”

She continued, believing that France had simply not done enough against opponents of Germany’s stature.

“But today, there are no excuses and we can’t play on them,” she said. “We’ve seen everything that worked before, but we didn’t see that tonight.

“Not because they [Germany] were a great team with great and intelligent players on the other side. We prepared well but didn’t play our usual game.”

Team-mate Selma Bacha pointed to Germany’s superior experience.

She claimed: “The difference is efficiency, and at the top level it doesn’t pay off [not scoring]. After that, we still have a young team, perhaps in attack it’s a bit too young, but that’s no excuse.

“We have to be efficient, we have to be lions in front of the goal. But tonight it didn’t work. But that’s the way it is – that’s football.”