The day before the game, when his team was training in the midday sun in Budapest, Didier Deschamps was able to observe an opponent who even his super athletes were inferior.

It was so hot, said the coach of the French national soccer team, that his players were immediately out of breath.

And at the latest when they kept asking about drinking breaks the day after in the heat of the Puskás Arena, where according to Deschamps 35 to 36 degrees were measured, he must have guessed that it couldn't actually go well.

Christopher Meltzer

Sports correspondent in Munich.

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    On Saturday afternoon it didn't go well for France, the world champion who now wants to become European champion.

    The 1-0 win against Germany in Munich was only followed by a 1-1 draw against Hungary in Budapest.

    A point that Antoine Griezmann secured with his goal in the 66th minute.

    But it was not enough to qualify early for the round of 16, even if the starting position before the third game against Portugal on Wednesday is still good.

    "The temperature had more influence on us than on the opponent," said Deschamps.

    "I don't want to look for excuses, but that's the reality."

    Despite this assessment, it is perhaps the biggest surprise of the EM that the Hungarians did not lose to France. They mostly ran after the ball, but once, in stoppage time in the first half, Attila Fiola escaped the French Benjamin Pavard and Raphaël Varane and at the end of his sprint, driven by 55,000 fans, had enough power to shoot the ball into the goal . Then he and his teammates ran after them again. Her coach Marco Rossi said: "We are used to suffering."

    But it is not just about the sun that the French should be classified as top favorites of the tournament even after this game. You could have won the duel, maybe even should. In the first half, Kylian Mbappé missed the goal with his head and Karim Benzema with his foot narrowly missed the goal. In the second half, Ousmane Dembélé failed on the post, and Mbappé on the famous goalkeeper Péter Gulácsi. Another opponent who was almost impossible to beat that day.