France captain Patrick Vieira admitted that his side fell into Scotland’s “trap” during their surprise Euro 2008 defeat at Hampden.
“We played the way they wanted us to play. They were looking for a battle, for tackles, because they are more at ease than us in this pattern,” he said.
“They knew they were playing a stronger team so they did the minimum and just waited for set pieces.”
French midfielder Claude Makelele said the side “badly wanted to win” but rushed their play.
“We badly wanted to win, we badly wanted to score and we just rushed things as they expected us to do. We fell into their trap,” he said.
France head coach Raymond Domenech said: “In the first half, it was too nice, too easy.
“We know that when everything is alright, when you are sure to win, there is always a time when you wake up and it’s already too late.”
Vieira, looking for France’s to bounce back in their next qualifier against Faroe Islands, said: “We will have to draw the lesson for Wednesday’s game.”
France striker, Thierry Henry, who came closest to scoring for France when he struck a post with a quickly taken free-kick, did not see the defeat as a reaon to panic.
“I am not really upset. I would have been upset had we been outplayed or out-muscled,” said Thierry Henry.
“Listen, I knew how the game was going to be because at Arsenal we have it every time we play away from home. Teams put everyone at the back and play long ball after long ball. Clearly the Scottish team just wanted to kick the ball forward and it worked for them because they got a corner, then another one and then they scored.
“But football is not about what you create or how you play – it’s about winning. This is a tough group and now Scotland must play Ukraine away and we have to play the Faroe Islands so maybe we can go to the top of the group after Wednesday.
“Remember Scotland have also to come to our ground. We are in by far the most difficult group. Fair credit to Scotland, they stuck to their game but they have to go to the Ukraine. We will see who goes through.”
