Following France’s loss to Argentina in the World Cup final, Hugo Lloris claims that it is “not the time” to talk about his future in the international arena.
Argentina ultimately prevailed in a six-goal thriller, as the all-time leading appearance holder for the Les Bleus was unable to save any of the penalties he was presented with in the shootout.
It has been questioned whether Lloris, who is now 35 and has been a member of France’s national team for 14 years and has been as captain since 2010, will remain among Didier Deschamps’ players.
However, the captain batted away those queries and believes the result will take time to digest, telling TF1: “Now is not the time to answer those questions.
“It’s a painful night for all the players, the staff, the management and all the supporters, even if we achieved great things.
“It has to be an experiment for the future. It will take a little time for everyone to digest it.”
Lloris also expressed his belief that the France squad did everything they could to emerge as victors, highlighting the response after the break following what was a poor first-half display.
“We were too reactive. It was almost a boxing match, we surrendered blow for blow. The only regret we can have is that we may have missed our first half,” he added.
“Despite that, we didn’t give up, we believed in it until the end. It took a winner, it was played on penalties.
“It’s always cruel to be on the wrong side. But we will have given everything from beginning to end in this competition. We come out empty, it’s been almost a month of competition.
“In this final, we could have dropped at 0-2 but we continued to believe until the end, we were able to turn the game around. It’s football.
“We must congratulate the Argentines who made a great tournament, a great final. The match could have swung either way, but we were too reactive.”