Spurs keeper Hugo Lloris admits France’s group couldn’t be tougher

Spurs captain Hugo Lloris kept a clean sheet for France last night as they inflicted Germany’s first defeat of this year’s European Championships upon them, but he is well aware of the threat that Portugal pose as well as Hungary too.

Should France finish second in their group, they will most likely find England waiting in the first knockout round, and Lloris will be tasked with keeping out teammate Harry Kane’s attempts all game – but if they pick up where they left off with a victory in their next game too, that won’t happen until at least later on in the tournament if at all.

“We couldn’t find a tougher group!” said Lloris, speaking to the official club website before France’s 1-0 victory over Germany.

“The World Cup winners in 2014, the World Cup winners in 2018, the European Championship winner in 2016 and Hungary, which is also a competitive nation, especially with the games they play at home… it’s going to be very interesting.

“With that being said, we have players who play in all the best clubs in Europe, they’re used to playing at this level and we need to use the experience of the World Cup to give confidence in this run, to get good results and good feelings during our games.”

Lloris may as of yet not have lifted a trophy with Spurs, but he got his first proper taste of glory with France back in 2018 when he lifted the World Cup after beating Croatia in the final.

There, he had the pleasure to be joined by club teammate Moussa Sissoko, who is also in France’s Euros squad surprisingly ahead of Spurs’ record signing Tanguy Ndombele.

However, the midfielder looks like he is set to leave the club after the tournament has been concluded, and Lloris could also be on the transfer list – but for now their focus remains solely on the next few weeks.

“I think it’s the target for the team to keep the momentum from the World Cup but obviously it’s going to be difficult because we are the team that everyone wants to beat, but we have the quality and we have the mentality.

“We have a tough group so it will be important for us to start the tournament well. It’s not an easy one but game-by-game we’re going to try to build our confidence into this tournament and then we know that after the group stage, it’s another tournament that starts and in one game, anything is possible, and you try to give yourselves every chance to go through.”