Hugo Lloris believes France has evolved as a result of its loss to Germany at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Mats Hummels’ early header settled a low-key quarter-final contest in Rio de Janeiro two years ago and, after dismissing the notion they are seeking revenge, Lloris claimed the loss was a valuable part of the team’s learning curve.
Ahead of their Euro 2016 semi-final clash in Marseille today, the France captain said: “There are always lessons to be learned from defeats, as there are [from] victories.
“It’s not just the quarter-final defeat that allowed us to grow, it was the World Cup in general but we came up against a better side on the day, a more experienced team at the time and they succeeded.
“But I think our team has grown, we’ve acquired experience, the players that were involved have stepped up at their clubs and have become more important in the France team.
“Things are going in the right direction but the only thing that matters is what happens on the pitch and we’ll find out about that tomorrow (Thursday).”
France has met Germany since that game at the Maracana – Les Bleus winning a friendly
2-0 in November 2015, a night marred by terror attacks in Paris.
Lloris added: “It was just a friendly game and nothing can replace genuine competition.
“You can see that with Germany, they have had a slightly inconsistent two years and yet they are here in the semi-finals. We beat them [in November] and had a good performance so we can be inspired by that to an extent but it was just a friendly.
“They currently have a status [of world champions] because of what they achieved in Brazil but we are not looking at who are favourites. We are motivated by our desire to put in a good performance. Mental strength will be important, it’s a semi-final, we are close to the end of the tournament so people are tired, therefore the head will take over.”
and then