Rabiot rues France's missed final chance

Adrien Rabiot, France midfielder
We tried to play our game but we probably didn't try hard enough. They probably wanted to win more than we did. We lacked a bit of desire and determination – they had more of that than us. It was a tighter game than the semi-final against Spain, but we had more possession and we were caught out at the start of the second half.

We were really tired after the last match. We played 120 minutes against Spain and that didn't make it easy for us. We recovered well but our motivation was probably the difference.

Serbia didn't play the same way as they did in the group game [a 1-1 draw between the sides] – tonight they were more defensive and let us play more. They rested some players before and they were on the pitch this time, which changed things in their team.

It's been a good tournament for us. If we got to the final it was because we deserved to. We grew game by game and in the semi-final we played well from a tactical point of view, but we came up short in the match that mattered most. It's a shame because we could have been European champions this year – unfortunately for us, it's Serbia.

Quentin Beunardeau, France goalkeeper
We are really devastated as we were desperate to win. Things like this can happen, this is football – we have to lift our heads and look forward. Serbia are a great team with a very powerful forward who made the difference. We weren't really in danger at any point – they had one chance and scored from it and after that they were pragmatic. It was hard for us to get at them and go forward. They defended well and congratulations to them.

Aymeric Laporte, France captain
We couldn't do anything to break Serbia down – they were a solid team and we weren't composed enough in front of goal. They only needed one chance to win, which came from a defensive mistake – at this level you get punished for that. Now we have to get our heads up and look to the future.

I've not really thought about what we did or didn't do because I'm too devastated by the defeat. We really wanted to win this final but couldn't do it. I can't think about what was good or bad at the moment.

There's no regrets for the team in general but I have regrets – you always do when you lose. We gave everything, though, and can't blame ourselves for anything. You can always say that luck and things like that weren't on your side, but that's not an excuse. We've learned from every match here, you're always learning. The experience we've got from this has been the most important thing.