KIEV, June 20: France were outplayed, outfought and outscored, and that was against a team with nothing to play for when they scraped into the Euro 2012 quarter-finals in ugly fashion following a 2-0 defeat by Sweden on Tuesday.

With world champions Spain now waiting in the quarter-finals of the European Championship, things better improve quickly for the French to stand a chance of going any further.

Although they qualified for the knockout stages of a major finals for the first time in six years, the loss showed just how much the team still needs to improve to be true contenders in the tournament.

“You have to be optimistic to think that we can beat Spain, but it’s hard right now to imagine that we can. We have to do better on Saturday,” France coach Laurent Blanc said. “We wanted to finish top of the group but couldn’t manage it, so we have to deal with that.”

On a hot and humid night at the Olympic stadium, Les Bleus were undone by with a piece of artistry in the 54th minute by Sweden’s inspirational captain Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who scored with a sublime bicycle kick in the 54th minute, and a late goal from Sebastian Larsson and finished second in Group ‘D’ behind England.

“We were prepared for tough game,” a seething Blanc told reporters. “We didn’t expect it to be so difficult. We were not strong enough in the tackles.

“I think Sweden played with lot of heart they gave everything, physically much better than us.

“In their ranks they had a player in the team who made the difference, which makes a hell of a difference. If we analyse the game I think we struggled throughout.

“We are really disappointed by this result but we were in trouble throughout the match. When you lose a match, it is because you have not got the right team out there.

“Therefore, if I was to start it all over, we would not start with the same team.”

The result ended a 23-match unbeaten run for France while handing the Swedes not only their first points of the group stage but also their first win over France in almost 43 years dating back to October 1969.

Ibrahimovic dedicated his man of the match award to his team-mates and told reporters: “We have a good team but on a personal and individual level we have room for improvement. Today we wanted to give our fans a present — in this atmosphere we felt as if we were playing at home.”—Agencies