Big names like Thierry Henry, Franck Ribery, Patrice Evra and Nicolas Anelka, on paper a formidable side, did not perform on the night and were outplayed by a cohesive Dutch unit.

Domenech raged: "Certain players did not do what they had to do.

"The players have to show themselves worthy of wearing the French shirt. Big players have to know how to get over things like this and to come back.

"Really this hurts. Our defence was always our strength. We were unlucky at times, but they have quality and we were missing something.

"We were not efficient and that has been our recurring problem for a while now. You can't do much about that. Every time we came back into the match they scored, and that's what killed us.

"As long as our destiny is in our own hands we can go through. We must not give in. We must play a high-level match we are capable of."

France face Italy next, and both sides need a win if they are to reach the quarter finals, and both stand a real chance of being knocked out of the tournament.