As the final whistle blew, the France players did not sink to their knees. They stood on the pitch, staring into space, or slumped back in their seats on the bench, eyes down to the ground.
This was not a sense of disbelief, but one of deja vu. It had happened again. They had been knocked out of a major tournament at the quarter-finals for the eighth time in 15 years, only five years on from losing to the United States in the last-eight stage of their home World Cup.
From Leon Marchand with his four gold medals in the swimming to Cassandre Beaugrand kicking hard in the final lap to win the women’s triathlon, plenty of French athletes have drawn strength from participating in a home Olympics. Not so in women’s football.
It is a sport France has long struggled to fall in love with, as the attendances have shown. Before the quarter-finals, the tournament had the lowest attendance since the competition was introduced in 1996 (excluding Tokyo), with an average of 12,212 spectators per match. Games in Paris have been well attended, but the rest of the country has been nonplussed and this 1-0 quarter-final loss to Brazil will not have converted the doubters.
France toiled for large portions of the match. They created good chances, particularly for tournament top scorer…
