Blanc furious as 'average' France surrender Group D top spot with loss to Sweden

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UPDATED:

00:00 GMT, 20 June 2012

Laurent Blanc lamented France's lack of sharpness in midfield and defence after the potentially costly 2-0 defeat to Sweden in their final Euro 2012 Group D game.

Although they enjoyed possession against the already-eliminated Swedes, France were toothless in attack and extremely shaky in midfield and at the back.

'We were not strong enough in the tackles. I think Sweden played with a lot of heart, they gave everything, physically they were much better than us,' Blanc said.

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'We did not suffer up front, we suffered a great deal at the back and also in the midfield. Sweden had a lot of physical impact there.

'I'm going to look at the game again but I think we conceded too much space.'

France could have fallen 2-0 down in the opening five minutes when Ola Toivonen and Sebastian Larsson easily got the better of the central defence.

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Zlatan Ibrahimovic was then allowed too much space in the area to unleash a delightful acrobatic volley into the net nine minutes into the second half.

'We were dominated in terms of tackles, in the air, on the ground, throughout,' said Blanc.

'Sweden had a lot of physical presence and we could not fight that.'

'We were too average in too many areas, we could not hope to win this game,' he said.