France captain Hugo Lloris says the World Cup marked a shift towards the team’s new generation led by Kylian Mbappe following Sunday’s final defeat to Argentina.

The final in Doha ended 3-3 after extra time, even though Mbappe scored a hat-trick, the second ever in a World Cup final. Argentina went on to win the world title. 4-2 in a penalty shootout.

The tournament was “a passing of the baton between one generation coming to the final stage of their careers to a new generation led by Mbappe,” said Lloris. “Mbappe showed strong leadership during the tournament and even more so in this final.

“It was like a boxing match, we went blow for blow,” said Lloris, who hailed the defending champions’ recovery from 2-0 down with just 10 minutes left in normal time.

“We didn’t give up. We needed a winner and it was decided on penalties. That’s always cruel. We are empty.”

All four of Argentina’s penalty kicks got past Lloris in the shootout. Lionel Messi, who had already scored twice in the game, scored one of them.

“We could have let it slip at 2-0 but we continued to believe that we could turn the game around,” added Lloris.

“We must congratulate Argentina who played a great tournament and a great final.”

Lloris refused to comment on his international future after playing at his fourth World Cup with France.

“I need, like everyone, to take a step back, to gain perspective on things,” he said.

“We’ll see in a few weeks. We’re leaving a tournament like this one drained and even more so after what happened tonight.

“We don’t have much strength left, we just want to be back with our families.”

Photo by EPA/Tolga Bozoglu