Day 34: Spain Smother France to Reach the World Cup Final

For 33 days this tournament had been, more than anything, a showcase for France’s front four. On Day 34 — the first semi-final, on Bastille Day of all days — the fireworks belonged to someone else entirely.

Spain walked into a climate-controlled Dallas Stadium in Arlington, took the ball off the pre-match favourites, and strolled back out with a 2–0 win and a place in Sunday’s final. One match on the schedule, one story — and an emphatic one: La Roja are first through, and look like the side nobody left in the bracket wants to draw.

France 0–2 Spain: a Bastille Day no-show in Arlington

The match data is almost eerily even — 51% possession to Spain, ten shots apiece — and tells you almost nothing about how one-sided this felt. France mustered their fewest shots of the whole tournament and finished with an expected-goals figure of just 0.3 to Spain’s 1.63 (per ESPN). The favourites tag lasted about twenty minutes.

It unravelled from a moment of pure carelessness. On 22 minutes, Lucas Digne headed a loose ball straight up into the air under no pressure, then — with his back to goal and Lamine Yamal creeping in behind — tried to hook it clear. Yamal, a day past his 19th birthday, nipped in first; the ball flicked the teenager’s arm, Digne’s follow-through caught him, and Salvadoran referee Iván Barton pointed to the spot. Up stepped Mikel Oyarzabal, who beat Mike Maignan — a goalkeeper with a reputation for saving these — even though the France keeper guessed the right way.

France’s night got worse on the half-hour when William Saliba pulled up with a back problem and was replaced by Maxence Lacroix — a blow against exactly the kind of side that punishes hesitation.

Whatever hope France carried into the break evaporated just before the hour. Starting the move from his own keeper, Spain worked the ball to the edge of the box, where Pedro Porro played a one-two with Dani Olmo, took the return in stride and slid a low finish past Maignan. Two shots on target, two goals — Spain’s ruthlessness against France’s profligacy in a single snapshot. Yamal thought he’d made it three moments later, only to be flagged marginally offside.

After that it was damage limitation for Les Bleus, and not much of it. Their frustration crystallised on 86 minutes when Mbappé, chasing a lost cause, barrelled into Unai Simón as the keeper bent to collect and was booked for his trouble. Two of France’s three shots on target arrived after the 94th minute — the very definition of too little, too late.

The invisible four — and the end of the Deschamps era

France arrived as the team with everything: group stage swagger, three clean sheets across their knockout run, and an attack of Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé, Michael Olise and Bradley Barcola that had been the tournament’s most watchable act. Against Spain they were, in ESPN’s phrase, the “Invisible Four.”

Mbappé failed to register a single shot on target for the first time in nine World Cup matches and won just two of his eleven duels. Olise — the tournament’s leading creator coming in — was hooked on 72 minutes having made no impact; Dembélé, the reigning Ballon d’Or holder, drifted; Barcola, a surprise pick over Désiré Doué that Deschamps reportedly only settled on the morning of the game, never found a yard of space. Deschamps rang the changes — Manu Koné at the break, Doué soon after — but the script never changed.

“When you don’t do what you’re supposed to do in a World Cup semi-final, you don’t win,” Mbappé told M6 afterwards, as reported by Al Jazeera. “We kept finding ourselves outnumbered 3-on-2 in midfield, and against Spain that’s a real problem. It’s a huge disappointment.”

Deschamps was blunter about the level: “To have any hope, we needed to be at our best. Unfortunately, we weren’t,” he said, per ESPN — though he also wondered aloud whether “the referee [was] up to the task of officiating a semi-final.” His farewell is now written: the 57-year-old, who confirmed in January 2025 that he would step down after the tournament, takes charge of France one last time in Saturday’s third-place play-off. He leaves as one of only three men to win the World Cup as both player and manager, and, the BBC noted, holds the record for most World Cup matches managed (26). “I am very proud of everything we’ve done,” he said. “Today is not such a moment.” Former striker Olivier Giroud, on BBC duty, spoke for many: “He deserved to exit by the big door.”

Rodri, Porro and a team that has forgotten how to lose

This was Spain’s third win over France in a major-tournament semi-final in three summers — after the Euro 2024 semi (2–1) and last year’s Nations League last-four meeting (5–4). It also stretched their unbeaten run to 37 matches across all competitions, matching Italy’s record for a European nation, and confirmed a defensive record that borders on the absurd: six clean sheets in a single World Cup, a first, with just one goal conceded across seven games.

At the base of it all was Rodri, imperious on his return to the biggest stage after a season limited to 21 Premier League appearances following knee surgery. Porro, whose club campaign at a near-relegated Tottenham was one to forget, made a game-saving interception on Mbappé at 0–0 and then scored the goal that settled it. “We gave it our all just to go through to the final,” he said, per ESPN. “This is our team, it’s not about me.”

Oyarzabal’s penalty, meanwhile, was his fifth of the tournament and his 30th goal in 60 caps — only the sixth Spain player to reach the 30 mark, behind David Villa, Raúl, Fernando Torres, Álvaro Morata and David Silva. Fittingly, his opener was the first time either France or Spain had trailed at any point in the tournament.

Manager Luis de la Fuente, unbeaten and unbothered, summed up the gulf to Sky Sports: “Today we faced one of the best national teams in the world, but in front of them they had the best team in the world.” Rodri, mindful that Spain have reached the final only twice, was already looking further: “We want to win the World Cup.”

The road to MetLife: what’s next

Spain now wait in the final on Sunday, 19 July, at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Their opponent is decided on Wednesday, when England meet Argentina in Atlanta in the second semi-final — either a rerun of the Euro 2024 final Spain won against England, or a first meeting with Lionel Messi’s world champions in a generation. On this form, La Roja will start favourites against either.

France, denied a third consecutive final — a feat only West Germany (1982–90) and Brazil (1994–2002) have ever managed — drop into Saturday’s third-place play-off in Miami Gardens against the losers of England–Argentina. It doubles as Deschamps’ send-off, and gives Mbappé, level with Messi on eight goals in the Golden Boot race, one last shot at silverware and personal reward.

Two games left, one trophy still up for grabs — and, suddenly, one overwhelming favourite. Keep the live scores close for the second semi-final.

France 0–2 Spain: a Bastille Day no-show in Arlington

The invisible four — and the end of the Deschamps era

Rodri, Porro and a team that has forgotten how to lose

The road to MetLife: what’s next

Sources