Phil Foden’s thankless match rating by L’Equipe another kick in the teeth

Charlie Herbert

Overall the England team got a rating of 5.5/10…

Phil Foden was handed a rating of just 4/10 by French sports paper L’Equipe following England’s 2-1 loss to France in the World Cup quarter finals.

On the flip side, Hugo Lloris was given the highest rating of any player in the game, picking up a score of 8/10 for his performance.

L’Equipe has become famous for its sometimes harsh player ratings and the rarity of it handing out 10/10 scores to players.

“Doubts about his level of performance? What doubts? It is thanks to his six saves that the Blues have remained afloat,” the paper said about Lloris’ performance against the Three Lions.

Hugo Lloris came away with the highest score of anyone in the game, with a score of 8/10 (Getty)

Southgate ‘was slow to make his changes’

But England fans will probably feel that many of Gareth Southgate’s players have been hard done by the influential paper.

They gave Foden a score of just four and wrote: “His first period was very delicate, he struggled, lost several dangerous balls and badly took a corner.

“After the break, the City star proved to be much more precise from set pieces and more available in the game. Overall, his performance was disappointing and Phil Foden was logically replaced by Marcus Rashford.”

The paper criticised Southgate for not removing Foden from the game earlier, saying: “If his choice to keep the 4-3-3 was wise, he was slow to make his changes.

“Phil Foden might have deserved to come out at half-time.”

Along with Foden’s 4/10 score, Jordan Pickford, Jude Bellingham, Jordan Henderson, Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw were all given only a five. In our player ratings, Harry Kane finished with top marks while Kyle Walker got a tough 4/10.

“He is the English player from whom we expected a lot, probably too much. He did not know how to accelerate the game of his team, as he had to do in previous outings in this World Cup,” they said of Bellingham.

Bukayo Saka picked up the best rating for an England player, scoring a 7/10.

The full player ratings for the England team (L’Équipe)

Referee awarded 4/10

The paper did have some praise for Kyle Walker as well, writing: “Above all, he had to control Mbappe and he succeeded very well because the Parisian only passed him once.

“He allowed himself a few breakthroughs and caused the warning of Griezmann, but above all he remained cautious to secure his right lane.”

And L’Équipe were equally open about the quality of referee, Wilton Sampaio, performance, giving him a lowly four.

Some of the French backline came in for criticism from the paper as well, with Theo Hernandez being given a four and Upamecano coming away with a score of five.

The full player ratings for the France team (L’Équipe)

“What is going through his head on this almost innocuous action which lead second penalty? A gross mistake which could have had immense consequences,” the publication wrote about Hernandez.

“A fault that occurs in a second period when Saka hurt him greatly, in particular by his internal movements. He is for example preceded by the will-o’-the-wisp by a cross from Shaw just after the 70th minute mark. Before that, he had managed Saka rather well, had ensured a clean first raise, and a few effective relays.”

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