Lloris: Not the time for France retirement talk

Hugo Lloris says it is “not the time” to discuss his international future, following France’s defeat to Argentina in the World Cup final.

A six-goal thriller ultimately went the way of Argentina, with Les Bleus’ all-time leading appearance holder unable to save any of the penalties he faced in the shoot-out.

Now 35, Lloris has been part of France’s national set-up for 14 years and has been captain since 2010, and there have been questions as to whether he would continue in Didier Deschamps’ ranks.

However, the captain batted away those queries and believes the result will take time to digest, telling TF1: “Now is not the time to answer those questions.

“It’s a painful night for all the players, the staff, the management and all the supporters, even if we achieved great things.

“It has to be an experiment for the future. It will take a little time for everyone to digest it.”

Lloris also expressed his belief that the France squad did everything they could to emerge as victors, highlighting the response after the break following what was a poor first-half display.

0 – France failed to attempt a shot or register a touch in the opposition box in the first half. Zéro. pic.twitter.com/jfyuvJOzxv

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 18, 2022

“We were too reactive. It was almost a boxing match, we surrendered blow for blow. The only regret we can have is that we may have missed our first half,” he added.

“Despite that, we didn’t give up, we believed in it until the end. It took a winner, it was played on penalties.

“It’s always cruel to be on the wrong side. But we will have given everything from beginning to end in this competition. We come out empty, it’s been almost a month of competition.

“In this final, we could have dropped at 0-2 but we continued to believe until the end, we were able to turn the game around. It’s football.

“We must congratulate the Argentines who made a great tournament, a great final. The match could have swung either way, but we were too reactive.”