Julien Laurens has shared that the France players were ‘hurt’ and ‘wound-up’ by how Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Hugo Lloris was treated by the English media at the Qatar World Cup.
The European journalist shared that the French players noted how the English press targeted Lloris as a possible weak point prior to Didier Deschamps’s side knocking England out of the World Cup.
It just so happened to be that Tottenham’s number one was at the heart of most of what happened, including those two penalties from Harry Kane.
Lloris couldn’t prevent his club teammate from equalising and stopping Kane’s first penalty, which levelled the scores in the first half.
But it was all about mind games for the second, with Kane going the same way as his first pen, but this time, he booted his spot-kick over the bear and Laurens spoke about the treatment Lloris got, as he told talkSPORT.
“You (English media) kind of wound us up a little bit with the stuff in the media,” said Laurens. “The players were a little bit hurt about what the papers were writing about Hugo Lloris, for example.
“About how bad he was. They used that a little bit as extra motivation maybe for the game. Maybe that they didn’t need it – they (the players) didn’t agree with the Lloris criticism, it so heavy.”
LLORIS STANDING TALL
Not many can argue that for Tottenham this season, Lloris has produced a number of questionable performances, including in the Champions League.
Even prior to teams heading for the World Cup, the £12 million man (BBC Sport) made an error against Newcastle United, which proved to be costly because Eddie Howe’s side took the points that day.
But, on football’s biggest stage, he is standing tall once more and he is on the right path to create history and win back-to-back world titles.
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