THE Nikola Batum he didn’t hide even after the defeat of France by Latvia that keeps his team out of the “16” of the World Cup spoke of shame and asked everyone to self-criticize.
“It is a big disappointment for us. We came with expectations, but we let a lot of people down, first of all ourselves. We have a big challenge in one year, the Olympics, but we should all see what went wrong. It was a landing in reality for us, it’s always the name on the shirt that matters and we didn’t show it. Failure is part of sports, I as a leader and the rest of the guys have to step up and take the responsibility first. Congratulations to Latvia, they deserved it“, the team leader emphasized and added:
“De Colo’s dismissal changed the whole momentum, brought their world back into the equation and completely changed the energy of the match. It is the biggest disappointment in my career with the national team. We had bad defeats but in advanced stages. I feel ashamed because we thought we could do something special, but we let our people down. It needs commitment from everyone for the future. Our reaction will show that we are a great team».
For his part, France coach Vincent Collet said: “Congratulations to Latvia. We had the lead almost the entire match, but the opponents fought like crazy for 40 minutes and never gave up. It’s a nightmare for us, after losing to Canada I expected a reaction, we saw it for three quarters where we played much better, but it wasn’t enough. Our confidence was not at the level of Latvia and it showed in the end. De Colo’s dismissal played a role, of course».
Source: Sport Fm
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