Carragher slams England for "lack of bravery" in defeat to France
Despite equalizing France's early lead in the second half, England failed to answer Giroud's goal and they got eliminated from the tournament in the quarter-finals. The former England and Liverpool defender claims Englishmen should have been much "braver".
France beat
England2-1 on Saturday with Tchouaméni and Giroud scoring for France and Kane scoring the Three Lions' goal as he later missed a penalty kick.
Former Liverpool defender
Jamie Carragher
, who missed a penalty in England's 2006 shoot-out loss to Portugal, believes Gareth Southgate's men lacked courage. He wrote in his column in
the Telegraph
:
"The biggest compliment I can pay Southgate's side is that they do not belong with such company.
"This England team was no underdog going toe-to-toe with the world champions. This England team leaves the tournament having played better than any side in Qatar over their five games, a genuine contender that could and arguably should have gone all the way.
"France won on the night because of moments – a stunning goal from distance and a cross from Antoine Griezmann that would have troubled any defence in the world.
"Then England missed a penalty, knowing that had Harry Kane equalised for a second time, it would have carried positive momentum into extra time."
He earlier told
Sky Sportsabout Southgate's use of his squad after the game was poised at 1-1:
"When you lose a game there's always things you look back on and think you could have done differently.
"That's easy to say after the event, but I did feel before the game that England had to be brave from the bench. I just felt that in the period between the two goals, we could have been braver from the bench.
"With five substitutions, it's a big part of a manager's role to try to influence or change a game. I know Gareth's been criticised for that in the past, after the games against Croatia [in the 2018 World Cup semi-finals] and Italy [in the Euro 2020 final].
"Both those sides, if we're being totally honest, were better than us. I don't think France were better than us, and I felt the change should have been to try to go and win the game.
"England certainly had the strongest bench in the competition, I firmly believe that, and I just think we could have been a little bit more proactive in that period where it was 1-1 and we were playing really well."
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