Lloris admits France could have lost by more

Hugo Lloris was the star man for France on a disappointing night for the world champion in Rotterdam.

Published : Nov 17, 2018 16:37 IST

Memphis Depay scores the Netherlands' second goal against France

France captain Hugo Lloris admits that the world champion was fortunate to only lose 2-0 to Netherlands in Rotterdam.

Georginio Wijnaldum and Memphis Depay scored for the resurgent hosts to give Ronald Koeman's men an impressive victory that kept alive their hopes of topping Group One in League A and, in the process, relegated Germany.

A draw for Oranje against Joachim Low's side in Gelsenkirchen on Monday will see it top the pool and advance to the final four.

READ: Netherlands 2 France 0: Wijnaldum & Depay decisive as Germany is relegated

It was a first defeat for France following their World Cup success in Russia and, without a string of Lloris saves, the scoreline would have been more emphatic.

The Tottenham goalkeeper said: "We played to the minimum of our potential and paid for it. The score could have been even more flattering for the Dutch. We have to hope that the Germans beat them on Monday."

"We knew what to expect, we knew the level of the Netherlands, they had demonstrated it against Germany and Belgium in October and they turned in a great performance."

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"We did not live up to it. It's disappointing, now we no longer have our destiny in our hands. In the coming days we will have to analyse it even if it is not easy to find the right words."

France meets Uruguay in a friendly on Tuesday and coach Didier Deschamps will be looking for a much-improved performance from that produced at De Kuip.

"There was one team out there with a lot of desire, and we didn't have enough. There was a clear gulf between the sides and they deserved the win. We didn’t show enough," he said.