Pages

Didier Deschamps rues 'unfair' defeat

Les Bleus were condemned to defeat by Shinji Kagawa's late strike, in a friendly arranged to prepare the 1998 World Cup winners for their upcoming qualifying clash with Spain. The former Marseille coach is confident his players will recover for Tuesday's game however, and believes that it will be entirely different to the one on Friday. DESCHAMPS 'HURT' BY JAPAN LOSS "I will not rejoice. When you cannot win, do not lose. It hurts and it is unfair compared to what we did, but from the first minute we did not have offensive efficiency," he told reporters. "The result hurts, but we had a lot of chances. This happens in football. It is not always the dominant [team] that wins. But we will not linger over it, we will recover and prepare for Tuesday's game. "When you do not score, there is always the possibility that [the other team will]. But there will be a totally different balance of forces on Tuesday." France striker Karim Benzema also took the time to reflect on the defeat, admitting that the Japanese provided a stern test for the Euro 2012 quarter-finalists. "There is disappointment. But it was a good match, and we played a good team," the Real Madrid forward opined. "It is a friendly but I wish that we had won. We put in a lot of energy. We had opportunities, [but nothing came of them]."