France pair Olivier Giroud and Ousmane Dembele have been hammered by French newspaper L’Equipe, with neither player receiving a player rating for their performance in the World Cup Final, while the referee was awarded just ‘2/10’.
Dembele gave away a penalty and was substituted after 41 minutes of the Final, with L’Equipe describing his performance as “40 minutes unworthy of a World Cup final”. Giroud, who was taken off at the same time, was also criticised as L’Equipe said: “The striker did not see the light of day against an Argentine defence”.
Neither Demeble or Giroud received a mark for their performance from L’Equipe, who are notoriously harsh with their player ratings.
Even Kylian Mbappe, who became only the second player in history to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final, did not receive a perfect 10 for his performance. The 23-year-old, who finished the World Cup as the tournament’s top scorer, was given a rating of nine out of 10.
Since 1988, only 14 players have received a perfect 10/10 rating from L'Equipe, the most recent being Erling Haaland for his hat-trick for Manchester City against Manchester United in October.
Lionel Messi is the only player to ever receive two perfect scores - for this four goals against Arsenal in 2010, and for scoring five against Bayer Leverkusen in 2012.
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Perhaps the most eyebrow-raising rating was the 2/10 given to referee Szymon Marciniak, who was widely praised for his performance in a thrilling game, most notably booking Marcus Thuram for a dive when a France penalty appeared to be the obvious decision.
