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Following their painful semifinal exit against Spain, France manager Didier Deschamps described his squad as completely shattered while captain Kylian Mbappe criticized the team's tactical blunders.
Deschamps' free-flowing French team had dazzled the competition en route to the last four, rattling in 16 goals in six games to earn comparisons to some of the greatest teams in World Cup history.
But France's dreams of a third World Cup title were left in tatters after a dominant Spanish performance that left Deschamps, who is stepping down after the tournament, struggling for answers.
"Of course, there is a lot of disappointment," Deschamps said immediately after the defeat at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
"The players are devastated because we had a lot of ambition, even though we also have to be realistic and acknowledge that today we were a notch below on the technical level against a team that controlled the game well. "But first of all, it's our fault; I don't want to blame anyone."
Deschamps, though, could not resist firing a shot at referee Barton, who had awarded Spain an early penalty after Lucas Digne kicked Lamine Yamal in the first half.
"I'll ask a loaded question, and I won't answer it," Deschamps said. "Is the referee at the level required to officiate a World Cup semifinal? "And I'm not saying this just because we lost today. There were quite a few situations. There were some favorable calls, too," he said, without finishing his thought.
Kylian Mbappe rued the end of France's World Cup dream on Tuesday, blaming tactical and technical blunders for his side's 2-0 semifinal defeat to Spain. Mbappe had emerged as one of the stars of the tournament during France's run to the last four, rattling in eight goals at the tip of a free-scoring attack that delighted fans worldwide.
But the 27-year-old French captain's dreams of a third straight World Cup final appearance ended abruptly as Spain outplayed Les Bleus (the French national soccer team) at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Mbappe told French broadcaster M6 that the loss had been a "huge disappointment" for the French squad. "I don't think we played the match we wanted to play, whether tactically, technically, or in terms of overall performance level," Mbappe said. "And when you don't do what you're supposed to do in a World Cup semifinal, you don't win," the Real Madrid star added.
"Our goal was to press them high up the pitch to prevent them from settling into that slow, controlled rhythm, because when it comes to controlling the game, they are better than us. We failed to do that."
Mbappe pinpointed the crux of the problem in midfield, where France's duo of Adrien Rabiot and Aurelien Tchouameni rapidly found themselves overrun by Spain's triumvirate of Rodri, Dani Olmo and Fabian Ruiz.
"We kept finding ourselves outnumbered 3-on-2 in midfield," Mbappe said. "And against Spain, that's a real problem...When you put it all together, the result is a defeat. It's a huge disappointment."
Mbappe said France's crestfallen squad was determined to bounce back after digesting the lessons of the loss. "It was a dream for us to reach the final, to give our country the chance to keep dreaming and to make history," he said.
"Now, it is something we have to face with our heads held high. I believe that when you win, you win with your head held high; so when you lose, you have to lose with your head held high, too. "But right now, there is immense disappointment. I find it hard to put into words just how disappointed the squad and I are.
"Yet even if it might seem a bit robotic at times, we have to pick ourselves up, go on vacation, and move on to the next chapter. Because football waits for no one. We have to start over, put this failure behind us, and learn from it."
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