France coach Laurent Blanc has said that his defence must improve if they are to do well at the upcoming European Championships.
The French extended their impressive unbeaten streak to 21 games with a comprehensive 4-0 success over Estonia in Le Mans last night.
They now travel to Ukraine, where they take on England in their tournament opener on Monday in Donetsk, and Blanc has said that his rear guard isn't performing at the moment.
"I'm not going to beat around the bush. Our defence was not good enough," Blanc told reporters after the Estonia win.
"It was an easy game, very easy... I said to them, 'This is not your day - the team is dominating out there and yet we're getting ourselves in trouble'.
"You have to understand that it wasn't the opposition that was causing us problems. We have to have a long hard think about what happened out there.
Blanc pinpointed his first-choice back four of Mathieu Debuchy, Adil Rami, Philippe Mexes and Patrice Evra as the players that must be on top form in Poland and Ukraine.
He added: "They need to improve, and I'm talking about all four defenders."
The other two sides in Group D, Sweden and Ukraine, were also in friendly action yesterday, with Sweden defeating Serbia 2-1 while Ukraine went down 2-0 against Turkey.
Pascal Lemesre
