Chelsea's Thibaut Courtois Apologises to France & Backtracks on His Criticism of Les Bleus' Tactics

Thibaut Courtois has apologised for comments made after Belgium's World Cup semi-final defeat to France, in which he criticised Didier Deschamps' team for what he perceived to be a negative style of football.

France won 1-0 on Tuesday to advance to the final against Croatia, becoming the first team at the tournament to keep a clean sheet against Belgium.

Courtois was one of several Belgian players to criticise France's approach in the aftermath of the defear, claiming that they "just tried to defend" and were no better than Panama, who lost 3-0 to Belgium in the group stages.

Antoine Griezmann has since defended his team against these comments and Courtois admitted that he was caught in the heat of the moment.

"I may have reacted a little too hard," Courtois confessed, quoted by L'Equipe. "But we must understand that we returned from the locker room, hot, two minutes after losing a semi-final where you feel that you were no worse than the opponent.

"That does not mean they did not play well, France has done everything to ensure we can not play our game, it's not bad.

"Antoine is right to say that the most important thing is to win, not how you win. This is a misunderstanding, I may have reacted a little too hard. I am sorry."

The Red Devils recovered to finish their tournament on a high, beating England 2-0 in Saturday's third place play-off thanks to goals from Thomas Meunier and Eden Hazard.

It was the best ever finish for a Belgian side at the World Cup, beating their previous best of 4th in 1986.