Zidane: 'Italy played better in Paris but won tonight'

Zinedine Zidane reviewed the first defeat of his tenure as coach of the France national team. Zidane said Italy had played better in Paris but won tonight. In the match at San Siro, France took the lead through Michael Olise's goal, which took advantage of a mistake by Gianluigi Donnarumma while playing out from the back. Francesco Pio Esposito equalised. Sebastiano Esposito's missed penalty was the moment France believed would be the turning point of the match. However, Italy recovered quickly, and with Davide Frattesi's goal and the second penalty, which Pio Esposito converted, they won 3-1.

Zidane said his side had started the first half well and kept the ball well, but lost their way after the break, especially in defence. France's absence of several players through injury also stood out in the match: Marcus Thuram of Inter, Pierre Kalulu of Juventus, Manu Koné of Roma, Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé, Aurelien Tchouameni, William Saliba, Jules Koundé, Maxence Lacroix, Maghnes Akliouche and Esteban Lepaul.

Chelsea defender Malo Gusto struggled on the right side of defence, first against Nicolò Cambiaghi and then against Federico Dimarco. Gusto's conceding of the penalty drew criticism. Asked about this, Zidane said his focus was on getting the team ready for the next match. Stressing that the squad was united, Zidane added that they had not been good defensively overall and needed to improve. He said he would not change players because of a single match.

Despite scoring, Olise became ineffective at San Siro as the match went on.