Mourinho’s Man Utd tirade continues, as Pogba taken to task for regrettable France antics
Jose Mourinho has aimed a dig at Paul Pogba and his France colleagues for their premature celebrations in their Euro 2020 defeat to Switzerland.
The reigning world champions exited the competition in shock fashion on Monday in a penalty shoot-out. However, there is a solid argument to say France should have won in 90 minutes. After going down 1-0, they recovered to 3-1 thanks to Manchester United midfielder Pogba’s fantastic curled effort.
However, Switzerland fought back to make it 3-3 before Kylian Mbappe missed the crucial penalty.
After scoring his goal, Pogba celebrated by dancing on the pitch with his team-mates. Speaking to talkSPORT, the 28-year-old’s former coach at Old Trafford criticised the France’s attitude.
Mourinho’s latest comments come after his public spat over Pogba’s United colleague, Luke Shaw.
“France started the game against Switzerland badly, they recovered in a fantastic way – showing the immense talent they had,” Mourinho said.
“But when I saw the way they were celebrating the third goal, I didn’t like it.
“I had the feeling that these guys were already celebrating the Eiffel Tower – dancing here, dancing there.
“I don’t know which dance they did, but they did a couple of different dances.
“With 20 minutes to go the game was not over so I think the way they approached the last part of the game was not the best.”
Mourinho also criticised France coach Didier Deschamps’ tactics.
The manager swapped Antoine Griezmann for Moussa Sissoko after 88 minutes, two minutes before Mario Gavranovic equalised.
In extra time, meanwhile, Olivier Giroud came on in place of Karim Benzema.
Mourinho insisted that the players and coach only have themselves to blame for their exit.
Mourinho criticises France approach
“Then they concede a second goal and with the last minutes of the game remaining, Deschamps thought the game was over because he takes Griezmann off,” the now-Roma boss added.
“Then they concede the goal and they go to extra time, and Griezmann is not there anymore.
“Then a few minutes later Benzema got injured a few minutes later and everything went wrong.
“France are a fantastic group but they are a team that can blame themselves.”
Switzerland will play Spain – who beat Croatia in a similarly thrilling last-16 tie – for a place in the semi-finals on Friday evening.
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