Spain Do It Again to Les Bleus
If France were hoping to avoid Spain's hex on them at major tournaments, they picked the wrong summer to try. At Dallas Stadium in front of 70,176 fans, Luis de la Fuente's side delivered another chapter in their recent dominance over the French, winning 2-0 to reach the World Cup 2026 final and extending an unbeaten run that now stretches to 37 matches across all competitions. It is the third straight tournament semi-final in which Spain have got the better of France, following a 2-1 win at Euro 2024 and a wild 5-4 thriller in the Nations League, and this time there was no late drama needed — Spain were simply the better team from start to finish.
Oyarzabal and Porro Do the Damage
The breakthrough came in the 22nd minute when Lamine Yamal, terrorising the French backline all evening, drew a clumsy foul from Lucas Digne inside the box. Mikel Oyarzabal stepped up and dispatched the resulting penalty with ice in his veins, the first goal France had conceded in seven matches at this World Cup. Spain doubled their lead just after the hour mark, Pedro Porro finishing off a slick give-and-go with Dani Olmo to side-foot past Mike Maignan and put the game to bed. France, so often ruthless in front of goal with Kylian Mbappe and Michael Olise pulling the strings, simply never got going — they mustered only a couple of shots all night and didn't test Unai Simon in the Spain goal until deep into the closing stages, long after the contest had been decided.
A Birthday to Remember (Almost) and a Worrying Blow
There was late frustration for Yamal, who was denied a goal of his own on his 19th birthday when a tight offside call chalked off what would have been a perfect present in front of a stadium full of well-wishers — not that it mattered much to Spain, who barely broke stride. The night's more sobering moment came in the 30th minute, when William Saliba went down needing treatment and had to be withdrawn, Maxence Lacroix summoned from the bench in his place. Didier Deschamps will be hoping the setback is nothing serious with a third-place playoff still to come, though on this evidence a reshuffled defence was the least of France's problems.
Verdicts and What's Next
De la Fuente was full of praise for his players afterwards, saying simply that "these players deserve everything... they make the difficult look easy" — a fair assessment of a Spain side that has now conceded just once in the entire tournament, with only Belgium managing to breach their defence back in the quarter-finals. Deschamps, by contrast, was left searching for answers, admitting his side "fell short and weren't as dangerous in attack as we could have been." For France, the World Cup now ends in the third-place match on Saturday, a bitter pill for the pre-tournament favourites. For Spain, the reward is a place in the final at MetLife Stadium on July 20, where they'll discover their opponent once Argentina and England settle their own semi-final. Whoever comes through that one will find a Spain side playing with total conviction — and precious little sign of letting up.