France faltered against Sweden but we should not turn our noses up at qualification, argues Nasri

Samir Nasri can appreciate why there has been such a negative reaction to France's 2-0 defeat by Sweden on Tuesday night but argues that it should not be forgotten that Laurent Blanc's men still managed to realise their "goal" of qualifying for the knockout stages.

Les Bleus had been hoping to progress as winners of Group D, and thus avoid a quarter-final clash with defending champions Spain, but, in the end, they only sneaked into the last eight after seeing their 23-game undefeated run ended by goals from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Sebastian Larsson.

Nasri freely admits that France underperformed, confessing that the players might have got ahead of themselves after their 2-0 win over co-hosts Ukraine, but he feels that the fact that they are in the knockout stages should not be overlooked.

"There may have been some complacency after Ukraine," the attacking midfielder is quoted as saying by RMC. "And we must get back to work now. But the goal has been reached, and we cannot turn our noses up at that."

France's mouth-watering match-up with La Roja will take place in Donetsk on Saturday evening, and kicks off at 20:45CET.