Coach Deschamps salutes 'great' French performance

Coach Didier Deschamps said France had responded to their critics with a "great" performance to reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup with a 4-3 win over Argentina today.

France struggled to convince during the group stage of the tournament in Russia and Deschamps said he was happy they had finally lived up to expectations.

"We had to respond (to the critics) and we responded well," he said.

"Criticism is always there. But there is truth on the pitch and (the response) came through a strong and quality performance which we delivered tonight. We made Argentina suffer."