Batelli enjoys 'extraordinary' France display

Ludovic Batelli, France coach
It's an extraordinary moment, but I want to take a moment to think of Paolo – it's your worst nightmare to have a performance like that in a match of this magnitude. I want to congratulate my team and offer commiserations to Italy.

The key was to defend well. Against Italy, if you don't defend well, you're in trouble. The players were well aware of that. It's not revenge [for EURO 2016]; it's an achievement for this group of players, all the staff and all those who've played with us over the years and over this season. We put in a great performance tonight, it was top quality – and the scoreline reflected our dominance. We played a perfect tactical game.

There were three key points: play as quickly as we could on the break; use the wings – which is how our first two goals came, so that worked perfectly; and defend well, win the second ball. Our back five had to close space and close the gaps – and Italy couldn't deal with that.

This year we've had a great squad and it's a win for all of us; the squad is a real group and we've benefited from that, from the circumstances created when we won our last elite round game in Serbia. We weren't awake at the start in our first game against England, but maybe that ten minutes made us win this tournament; everyone knew that if we continued like that, it would be a catastrophe. These are players who've worked for each other, with great quality, and we've shown that in our last three matches: against the Netherlands, Portugal and especially Italy.

[To celebrate] we'll have a meal at the hotel for the players and their families; we've had five weeks' working together so we can keep them one night longer! Players will go back to their clubs straight away to start preparing for the new season; there's no time to stop because it all begins again. I hope they'll continue to have some great achievements.

France's Ludovic Batelli (left) with Italy coach Paolo Vanoli before the final©Sportsfile

Paolo Vanoli, Italy coach
Firstly we have to offer our congratulations and compliments to France. They won the match, they're European champions and they deserve that – they played very, very well. I'd also like to praise our players as they did the best they could. They got to the final, which is important for them and the future – so we'll see what happens next.

We started well and were doing OK for the first few minutes but France scored early and after that it was difficult to stop them. But we did as well.

We knew there was a big difference between us and France. You can prove it with statistics; France's players have made 195 appearances in the first and second divisions. That's the real difference between them and our players – our players haven't got that experience and that counts.

We did very well at this tournament; we played really well. Our squad was very strong, we played with good organisation and that's why I want to pay my compliments to my team and how they did at this finals. They've been excellent.