The morning after the night before, and having reached the status of favourites with three wins in the group stage, and eight out of eight in qualifiers, France are out after losing to Denmark, who were there thanks to a hat, on penalties.

«C’est ce sport : il faut savoir être efficace, dominer ne suffit pas.» Sandrine Soubeyrand

As ever, the stats show domination, but also weakness. 31 shots to 4 over the 120 minutes played – score: 1-1. When on song, France can appear to score at will, putting three past Russia and England, but this relies more on overwhelming their opponents with shots (22 and 19) than on clinical finishing. In a match with fewer opportunities, France can be a nervy watch – against Spain (10), they showed great resilience to hold on to their early lead, and see out the game.

It may sound strange to say that goalkeepers Todua and Bardsley played well against France, when they both conceded three, but they did; it will not sound strange to say that Petersen did for Denmark, with nine saves, in the face of the onslaught. But Soubeyrand is right – after going behind, France rallied, and after half-time came out with even more vigour, but it was frantic, sometimes formless stuff. The majority of shots came from outside the area, Petersen making solid saves, but nothing spectacular (an enforced dribble off her line when a defender put in a panicked back-pass aside). She got two hands to Necib’s equalising penalty but couldn’t keep it out – and got some revenge in the shoot-out, with a weaker effort to deal with. The nature of France’s game is that they can make opposition goalkeepers look really good.

«C’est un peu irréel, mais là je ne suis pas encore consciente que l’on est éliminées.» Gaëtane Thiney

France’s eight goals came in pairs; braces for Delie, Le Sommer, Necib, and Renard. Delie played the first two matches up-front before injuring herself in the warm-up before the England match; Le Sommer came in for that, and played very well, but it was Thiney who got the nod against Denmark. Rotation can be a strength, but for France it seems more a constant search for focus in front of goal.

Renard’s contribution is also telling – she actually is efficient (her two goals coming from three attempts) but while it is fine to bring your towering centre-back up for set-pieces, she can be caught out of position by her general attacking style; Russia found that with their consolation goal late on. A big part of France’s win over Spain came from Renard also putting in a fine defensive shift, most notably nullifying captain Veronica Boquete, such that she didn’t get a shot off.

With Le Sommer heaving in crosses or barrelling into the box, Thomis sprinting up the right wing and ruining multiple leftbacks, Necib working her magic all across the park, it does seem surprising that France are out. One wider explanation could be the development of the women’s game overall in recent years: while qualifying campaigns can still feature comedy double-figure scorelines, things have got more competitive at the top (you only need to look at Sweden and Germany’s drawn first matches to see that, although yes, Sweden now seem to have woken up), which means that it is no longer enough to have good players – teams need good tactics as well. This was a contributing factor to England’s failure to make it out of the group when they are ranked fourth in Europe; it is also a factor for France.

«C’est comme ça.» Bruno Bini

Bini’s assessment of the match was as feeble as some of his decisions throughout the tournament – Denmark had had two more days’ rest after the last group game; true, but fitness didn’t seem to be the issue (Thiney more pointedly said that they didn’t know how to respond to the physical challenge posed by Denmark, which is a slightly different thing – Russia’s physical approach also kept France briefly at bay in the first match, whereas the team showed most composure against the less robust Spain). We won three and drew one and we’re out – they got three draws and a defeat and they’re through; again, true, but not actually relevant. As someone pointed out on Twitter (sorry – lost the tweet), France – or Bini – seemed to think that they would be graded on their overall performance during the tournament. There’s a defensiveness about him, and a simplistic approach to adversity – throwing on attackers at the expense of maintaining control of the midfield, against Denmark taking Soubeyrand off for Thomis, both moves fine in their own right but on balance, affecting the balance. With fullbacks Franco and Boulleau not having the best of games, most of the set-ups for the attack were coming from Bussaglia, the other deeper-lying midfielder. who was also needed to provide a defensive shield.

It is noticeable that Soubeyrand made her comment that “domination isn’t winning” at the same time she confirmed her retirement from international football, at 39 years old and with 198 caps. Wistful to think that had France progressed, the final would have been her 200th game in blue. Sonia Bompastor, in a recent interview with France Football, said that after losing the Olympic semi-final, she had spoken to Bini about her concerns. She was dropped, with no explanation – “France has an exceptional generation available. If that group couldn’t manage to get at least a medal at the World Cup 2011 and 2012 Olympics, it’s because some things didn’t go as they should have done. I imagined bringing my international career to an end after the Euros. That brutal finish changed my plans…”

The final question to the manager was, as traditional, about his future. His response, similarly by the book, that this was not the time to speak about that. That time must come sooner rather than later, however, if France are to be more than a flat-track bully who can be checked not just by skill, but simple organisation.