No one could have seen this Spain vs France Semifinal coming. Stating that the Spanish dominated the French in their matchup is an understatement. Here are my biggest takeaways from Spain’s 2-0 victory.
The history of the Spain vs France matchup turned out to matter. The preview article mentioned that the Spanish had beaten the French twice since Lamine Yamal became a starter, once in the Euros in 2024 and once in the UEFA League in 2025.
Spain’s success vs France could be a case of one team matching up well with another. To make a cross-sport comparison clearer, the French are like the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Spanish are like the San Antonio Spurs. Oklahoma City, like France, ran through the rest of the teams. The Thunder had a record of 63-14 against the rest of the NBA, but were 1-4 against the Spurs.
Similarly, the French had not lost a match in regulation in the World Cup since Kylian Mbappe’s arrival. France also won all its major tournament matches until they ran into Spain, then came the round before the biggest game in their respective sports.
For the NBA, that is the Conference Finals. For FIFA, it’s the World Cup Semifinals. Oklahoma City ended up playing San Antonio in the Conference Finals and lost in seven games. The regular-season dominance of the Spurs proved to be a big deal.
In the World Cup, the French faced off against the Spanish in the semifinals and lost 2-0. The matchups in the previous tournaments proved to be costly. This proves furthermore that in sports, no matter how commanding a team is, there’s always a counter to bring them back down to earth.
For the Thunder, that was San Antonio, and for France, that is turning out to be Spain. The point is simple: some matchups expose a dominant team’s weakness.
The Spanish dominated the French by continuing to do what they did best: defend. Unai Simón, Spain’s goalkeeper, became the first ever to force six shutouts in a tournament. The extra game caveat does not apply here because he did it before reaching the final.
Don’t let the final box score fool you. France had major trouble generating any offense in the final third of the field. The box score states that they had four shots on target, but three of them came in the final 10 minutes when the Spanish took down the intensity a little bit.
When the game was in the balance at 1-0, Spain conceded just one shot on goal. They held the second-highest scoring team in the tournament to no goals. Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele finished with player ratings of 5.4 and 6.0, respectively, as it was a struggle for them the entire match.
The Spain vs France semifinal was methodical domination. The Spanish constantly prevented the big play ability of the French, and as soon as Mbappe and company started pressing, they struck the final blow.
The fewest goals conceded in a World Cup is two. Can Spain break that record even with the extra game?
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It’s truly shocking to have this kind of outcome of Spain vs France. A two-goal difference doesn’t always reflect how dominant one team was over the other. Take Argentina and Switzerland for example.
The Argentinian and Swiss match ended 3-1, but those who watched the game knew that it was tight until Argentina pulled away by scoring two goals in extra time. Spain vs France was nothing like that.
Once the Spanish went up 1-0 after the early penalty, the French were unable to do anything. Normally, when a team goes up 1-0, the leading team tends to relax and allow more offensive surges by the trailing team.
A let-up and corresponding attacking frenzy did not occur in the semifinal, and that’s a credit to Spain’s defense, especially the goalkeeper.
Now the Spanish await Argentina or England. Who will join Spain on the big stage?
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