• The French basketball team lost in the Euro final on Sunday against Spain.

  • The day after this match, the Blues, who returned to Paris, were all still marked by disappointment.

  • The silver medal is not enough to make them happy.

It was kind of the theme of the day.

While the United Kingdom paid a last tribute to the Queen of England, this Monday on the occasion of her funeral, the French basketball team returned to the country with a small funeral head.

Nothing to do with Elizabeth II, but the disappointment, still very present, of the defeat in the final of the Euro, Sunday in Berlin, against Spain (88-76).

A few steps from the prestigious George V and Prince of Wales hotels, as if by chance, the Blues went to the Nike store on the Champs-Elysées in Paris.

Not to meet their supporters, who knew nothing about it, but for a press conference organized at one of the FFBB's partners, to take stock of the competition, after this new medal, the tenth, acquired at the Euro.

"We can't pretend to be happy"

If a few smiles, a few chambers came to punctuate the arrival of the Blues, the faces closed once returned to the heart of the matter.

And the disappointment is still there.

“Yesterday's game [Sunday] really hurts, confided Evan Fournier.

As much as we really appreciated our silver medal last year, at the Olympics.

There, it has a slightly different flavor.

Leaving after a defeat is really hard.

"" We can not pretend to be happy, noted Rudy Gobert.

It's hard to miss this opportunity.

»

The voice still hoarse, Vincent Collet, too, had trouble digesting this epilogue: “I have rarely been so dejected after a match for the France team.

We had high hopes.

But Spain had their best match of the tournament, not us.

They had never played at this level, had an exceptional match, and it's not easy for me to say that.

It's complicated, but it's part of the sport.

»

It may be part of sport, the coach of the Blues, who nevertheless hopes that this defeat will help his men to bounce back, still had certain moments of the match across the throat, such as this fourth quarter, where the Blues returned to 7 points “lost seven or eight chick balls.

Chicks make those same bullet losses.

And we conceded five offensive rebounds.

When that happens in the final, it's hard to win..."

A complicated night after the final

Chick, Terry Tarpey is not.

But the Manceau, called surprise of this selection, carried out a hard-fought competition.

And one would have thought that he would have had a little more banana than his friends for his first major competition with the Blues.

Nay.

“I'm a perfectionist, and a good result would have been a gold medal.

It's a disappointment, because we were very close, regrets the back of Le Mans with a strong American accent.

Afterwards, maybe I will realize, in the next few weeks, that we had a good tournament.

But there, it's difficult to be happy with a silver medal.

»

We still tried to recall the miracles against the Turks and the Italians, his great performances, his two medals in as many competitions, nothing worked: Guerschon Yabusele also has low morale.

“Me, I lost in the final, I'm disappointed, from A to Z. We did everything well until the final.

I didn't sleep after the game and I wasn't the only one.

It's hard to end like this.

The flying bear is already focused on the future: the Super Cup with Real Madrid on Saturday, where he should be there.



The future, precisely, is what Jean-Pierre Siutat, the president of the French Basketball Federation, insisted on during his speech: “We can be proud of this result and optimistic for the future.

We are two years away from the Paris Olympics, where we have very big ambitions.

What we saw in this tournament reassures us, when there was a lack of senior players.

Boys have revealed themselves, it's positive for the future.

So I will stay on a real positive message for French basketball.

Be careful, however, that the encouraging defeat does not become a habit.

Others have tried, they have had problems.

Sport

France-Spain: Still dominated in the final, the Blues are "fed up with silver medals"

Sport

Eurobasket: Take out the popcorn… France-Spain in the final, a new page in an incandescent rivalry

  • Vincent Collet

  • Evan Fournier

  • Basketball

  • France basketball team

  • Eurobasket

  • Sport

  • Rudy Gobert