Over 70,000 fans in Arlington witnessed France fizzling out in a disastrous defeat to Spain in the semifinals of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Luis de la Fuente’s unbeaten run with Spain in tournaments remains intact as he guided his nation to its only second Men’s World Cup grand final.
The manner of the defeat is worse than the result for France as they were thoroughly contained by Spain. Taking their shots with deadly precision, La Roja shook Les Bleus out of the game and never let them back in again. Here are the match observations from this clash.
Spain’s anticipation and awareness were top notch
You have to give it to the Spaniards this one. They read France like a book. The flicks, turns, feints and through balls had very little effect in getting past Rodri, Fabián Ruiz and their defenders. Their individual awareness and team cohesion was too strong for the likes of Michael Olise and Kylian Mbappé to flair their way.
The through ball anticipation really killed many attacks before they even started. Olise was neutralized by numbers and good anticipation from Spain. With the CAM effectively out of attacks, Deschamps’ men had a very difficult time in creating from just the wings. Not only did Spain have more than 50 percent tackles than France, but several of their 22 tackles forced the opponents to restart from the scratch which took the sting out of the French attack.
The perfect day out
The early penalty scored by Mikel Oyarzabal gave his side a huge edge. There wasn’t much to separate the two sides for most of the first half. However, a controversial penalty call offered Spain the opportunity to get a perfect start. We had previously pointed out how inefficient France have been in front of goal and a team that can take its chances were always going to be a huge threat to them.
Apart from the penalty, which contributes 0.79xG, the expected goals statistic from Spain was just 0.84. Pedro Porro’s shot that you can see above to score the second goal was clinical as it was his team’s only second shot on goal. It basically finished the game as France had showed no inclination that they could score at all against this well-knit defensive unit.
The exalted French attack choked big time
There can be no defending the French forwards. The opposition did a commendable job in completely isolating them from the team and reducing them to just individual attackers against a team of defenders. However, they had some good moments where better decision making could have resulted in at least one goal.
Désiré Doué had an empty net to shoot and took all the time in the world. By then, Unai Simon got his angles covered. Ousmane Dembelé was free and could have finished it but Doué made an absolute meal of it as he shot right at the out of position keeper. This was one of the best chances of the game for France. Kylian Mbappé was dispossessed by Cucurella right in front of goal where a mere tap in would have sufficed to score.
Dembelé hardly had any impact. With the central area completely cutoff, it was up to him and Bradley Barcola to get creative on the flanks. Barcola did trouble Porro to a certain extent but the Ballon d’Or winner went invisible. His shots that finally came very late in the game were not even remotely enough to get past the goalkeeper. Their 20 touches in the penalty box could not translate to a single goal while on the other hand, Spain punished them with two goals from just 13 touches.
Squad selection gone wrong ?
Firstly, Lucas Digne giving away the penalty cannot be blamed solely on him. It could have happened to any French player and so that can be allowed to slide. However, he was clearly outmatched by the duo of Pedro Porro and Lamine Yamal. On top of this, he overstayed until the 72nd minute in what was a rare and shocking mistake from Deschamps.
Theo Hernández was clearly better suited as was seen when he came on. Lamine Yamal had a lot of trouble going up against Theo as he was matched in pace and overpowered in physicality by the Frenchman. Hernández’s pace was a problem for the Spanish right back Pedro Porro as well. Theo got clear and was wide open in between the defenders one instance but wasn’t spotted by Mbappé. That was another instance where the French attackers lacked clarity and ideas in the final third.
The left-back was turning into a nuisance and the goalkeeper was forced to rush at him in the final minutes. Digne neither had the attacking threat nor the defensive security to warrant his inclusion in the starting lineup. Why neither of the Hernández brothers were started outright will be a big question and a blunder that also happened to lead to the penalty.
The refereeing is not off the hook in this game either
It just has to be said. The refereeing has been very questionable throughout the tournament. In this game in particular, there were two major inconsistencies that was quite honestly annoying to see at this level of the game.
Firstly, the penalty given to the foul on Lamine Yamal needed to be checked. The young attacker charged in and would have fallen to the ground regardless of Digne’s foot catching him. The point of contact between the ball and Yamal was his triceps. The VAR should have been consulted to for checking for handball and diving. But, there was no time taken at all by the ref who rushed into the penalty decision despite being far from the incident.
Secondly, the offside calls for France were criminally early. It is the norm to let plays arrive at a natural conclusion and then call offside to allow for a margin of human error that the safety net of VAR would eventually correct after the play is over. But, there several instances where the French attackers and Mbappé in particular was flagged offside and played stopped despite it being very tight situations.
There was literally no reason to do that, just let the play continue. If it is an offside, call it after the play concludes and the computer will anyway step in, do the math and give out the right call. On the other hand Spain’s third goal that was disallowed for offside was allowed to be finished before calling for offside. The double standard for offside tolerance was blatantly obvious.
Of course this is no guarantee for a France goal or a victory, but the point is, organic chances in the game were killed of by the refs. Mbappé and his fellow attackers’ speed and style of play relies on through balls and long balls combined with runs from the pacey attackers. A flag happy referee calling offside unnecessarily would kill the rare chances that this team naturally creates and that is what happened in this game.
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