Didier Deschamps will mark a bittersweet record when he leads Les Bleus for the 27th and final time in a World Cup match on Saturday, after 14 years at the helm. But the bronze-medal tie in Miami is certainly not the sendoff he had hoped for to bring his time with France’s national team – their most successful yet – to a close. “We’ve got another match in four days’ time, even if it’s not the one we were expecting. Tonight we’re very disappointed – in fact, we’re deeply disappointed,” Deschamps conceded after his side were outplayed and outsmarted by Spain in a gruelling semi-final loss at the Dallas Stadium. Read moreSpain deliver masterclass to sink French Armada and reach World Cup final France’s defeat – their third consecutive one at the hands of La Roja, after semi-final exits at Euro 2024 and the Nations League last year – provides an anticlimactic farewell for the 57-year-old, who announced last year that he would step down when his contract expired after the tournament. Ironically, the chastening defeat comes as Deschamps’ swashbuckling France had begun to silence critics of his defensive-minded tactics, putting an abrupt end to their short-lived experiment in champagne football.