FANS are stunned by France manager Didier Deschamps’s “ruthless” half-time team talk despite his players being 7-0 up.
Les Bleus went on to set a new record margin of victory in European qualifying and a national record in a demolition of Gibraltar who lost 14-0 in Nice.
Ethan Santos’ own goal, Marcus Thuram and 17-year-old Warren Zaire-Emery on his international debut had already put France in command.
But Santos’ red card on 18 minutes allowed Didier Deschamps’ men to run amok.
By half-time Kylian Mbappe’s penalty and Jonathan Clauss, Kingsley Coman and Youssouf Fofana’s goals made the game 7-0.
Despite their lead, Deschamps did not hold back in his half-time speech and told his players to go and “smash the record” – which was 10-0.
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He said: “Full marks boys for that first half. Let’s have more of the same in the second half.
“Keep things as simple as possible and whenever we can, we score.
“It’s 7-0 but there are no limits. I want the same determination from everybody.
“The record is 10-0, out of interest. You could smash it. Don’t hold back boys.”
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Fans were amazed by the Frenchman’s winning mentality in the dressing room as the team went on to double their lead in the second half.
One fan said simply: “Ruthless.”
Another added: “Elite mentality 👏.”
A third fan put: “Wicked man 😂.”
Deschamps has won the World Cup as both a player and manager and the record his team broke was the 10-0 triumph against Azerbaijan in 1995 – a game he played in.
The Euro 2024 qualifier against Gibraltar saw nearly every one of his team get in on the action with France boasting nine different goalscorers.
Mbappe – who scored a hat-trick – took his record to 42 goals in 72 games for France with his third hat-trick for his country.
The 24-year-old now has 21 goals in just 18 appearances for club and country this season.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
