France star Hugo Lloris has offered his Tottenham Hotspur teammate Harry Kane commiserations after the latter's penalty miss during England's 2-1 loss at the 2022 FIFA World Cup quarterfinals.
Kane, 29, garnered a lot of headlines during England’s exit from the tournament on Saturday (December 10). After equalizing from the penalty spot in the 54th minute, he failed to repeat his heroics half an hour later as he skied his spot-kick over the opposition cross-bar.
Due to Kane's miss, Olivier Giroud's 78th-minute header proved enough for his team's qualification into the next knockout round of the ongoing 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Earlier, Aurelien Tchouameni opened the scoring with a long-distance piledriver in the 17th minute.
Speaking during a post-match interaction, Lloris shared his thoughts about Kane's headline-worthy failure for England. He said:
"I want to be honest with you, with all the emotions, it's a big match, it was a key moment. I have to be honest, we are teammates, I respect him a lot. Kane took the responsibility at a key moment."
Offering words of support to Kane, Lloris added:
"Fortunately for the French team, he missed. I know he is strong and he may not think about it for too long. I can share this moment of pain with him. I didn't speak to Harry after the match."
Lloris lauded his France teammates for their efforts in the thrilling 2022 FIFA World Cup win over Gareth Southgate's side. He concluded:
"We have to savor this moment in the dressing room. It's a big moment. It's England. We did a very good job. The French players deserve the credit. The mental aspect was decisive. It was a difficult match against a very good English team. They deserve a lot of praise because it was a great battle right to the end."
France star shares his excitement about facing Morocco in the 2022 FIFA World Cup semifinal
Speaking at a post-match presser, France and Real Madrid midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni claimed that his team's 2022 FIFA World Cup semifinal clash against Morocco would be a marvelous contest. He said:
"It's going to be wonderful. We know the histories of these two nations, so it'll be a great match. We need to continue and keep measuring up to the competition. We feel little by little that there's a real group forming. We suffered, but this is the World Cup."
Sharing his thoughts on their 2-1 win over England, he added:
"We played a very, very good English side that caused us a lot of problems. Aside from that, we were able to hang tough, score towards the end, and progress. Will we be champions? We need to win the next game first, prepare well for this nice Morocco team, and then we can think about that."
France will take on Morocco on Wednesday, December 14, for a spot in the tournament's final.