From June 2009 to December 2022, Hugo Lloris was the undisputed starting goalkeeper of the France team. The native of Nice will have worn the Blues jersey 145 times, and places himself very high in the hierarchy if we have to classify the greatest goalkeepers in the history of French football.
However, Hugo Lloris is accompanied by a rather inglorious reputation in a very specific area. If he is excellent on his line and very good in one-on-one situations, the former Lyon and Tottenham player is not very effective on penalties: 10 saves made, and 96 penalties conceded, a very low ratio. -below average.
This cost the Blues dearly during certain penalty shootouts. At Euro 2021, first, and during the 2022 World Cup, of course. In Qatar, the contrast was striking between the exuberant and imposing Emiliano Martinez, who had made some French shooters tremble, and the placid Lloris.
Lloris defended by his former coach
While Didier Deschamps often speaks of
“lottery” to qualify the penalties, some may have thought that the Blues were not working on this exercise. And that Lloris’ lack of interest in this crucial phase of play may have cost France a World Cup.
For the Blues goalkeeper coach, these are accusations “dishonest”. “I know what we did, answers Franck Raviot, in the podcast La voix des Gardiens. I know the time we spent, I know the time the video analysts spent sometimes late at night. I know what we set up with Hugo, I know the time Hugo spent in front of the screens decoding, deciphering, noting down. » So the work was done, even if it wasn’t enough…
