Gary Neville brands France "a mess" in scathing criticism after Euro 2020 exit

Manchester United and England legend Gary Neville branded France "a mess" after their shock Euro 2020 exit on Monday night.

The world champions drew 3-3 with Switzerland in a thrilling encounter, but ultimately crashed out at the round-of-16 when the game was decided on penalties.

Superstar Kylian Mbappe missed the only spot kick of the shootout, with Yann Sommer saving his effort to send the underdogs through to the last eight of the tournament.

France were heavy favourites but had to come from behind to lead 3-1 with nine minutes remaining, through a Karim Benzema double and Paul Pogba pearler in Bucharest.

However, after Haris Seferovic reduced the arrears, substitute Mario Gavranovic scored an added-time equaliser for Vladimir Petkovic's plucky outfit, who had earlier missed the chance to take a 2-0 lead early in the second half when Ricardo Rodriguez saw his penalty saved by Hugo Lloris.

The Spurs keeper couldn't repeat his heroics after the final whistle had blown following 120 minutes of intense action however, as all five Swiss takers scored, before Mbappe was denied.

Neville, part of ITV's punditry team, had previously hailed France as favourites to lift the Henri Delaunay trophy, but didn't agree with the formation that manager Didier Deschamps employed.

"I think it was a mess for France tonight, from the first minute," Neville stated on the channel post-match.

"They thought they could turn up, be complacent, I felt the way they set up in their system was all wrong, the players didn't have a clue in the first half what they were doing."

"That was four out of their starting back five, don't be fooled by their injuries at left-back, that's one position," added the 85-capped Three Lions defender.

"They were a mess."

Neville's former United team-mate and fellow pundit Roy Keane gave his own scathing assessment, saying: "The French were hugely disappointing, they had the game won, 3-1 it was done and dusted.

"The French turned up with the wrong attitude and you think they've got themselves out of jail with their quality but not enough and I'm glad they've got punished for that," Keane admitted to ITV.

"You can have all the quality in the world but if you don't turn up with that proper attitude it's hard to switch it back on, and Switzerland were absolutely brilliant."

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Keane and Neville's old foe Patrick Vieira, who won the competition in 2000 as part of Les Blues with Deschamps, also didn't hold back on his nation.

"Tonight we have to give the credit to the Swiss team because I strongly believe that the best team won today," Vieira said on the show.

"The best team deserved to go through to the next round, and tonight it was the Swiss."

The ex-Arsenal captain continued: "I'm really disappointed with the attitude we had on the pitch. I think it was a poor French national team, there wasn't any kind of togetherness, there wasn't any kind of spirit. We didn't play as a team, so we didn't deserve to go to the next round.

"I think at times we played well, because of the individual quality of the players making a difference, but collectively we were far behind the Swiss."

France's defeat was part of a blockbuster night of European Championship action on Monday, as in the earlier match, Spain beat Croatia 5-3 in extra-time to book their place in the quarter-final.

In Copenhagen, the evergreen Luka Modric inspired the 2018 World Cup finalists to a late 3-1 comeback of their own, before Luis Enrique's side scored twice in the first half of extra-time to finish the job they almost let slip.

Switzerland will now meet Spain in St Petersburg on Friday to kick off the quarter-finals.