It was billed as a tactical battle between decorated French coach Didier Deschamps and his Spanish counterpart Luis de la Fuente in the FIFA World Cup semi-final.
But the understated La Fuente had the last laugh, as his midfield maestros suffocated France’s feared attack to book Spain’s place in their second final since 2010.
A number of star members of the golden generation, which looked unstoppable when they won Spain’s only World Cup and back-to-back European titles in 2008 and 2012, were in attendance at the Dallas Stadium – and they would have been delighted to see the legacy in capable hands. While nobody ever doubted the quality of Rodri’s men and their tiki-taka style, La Roja showed there was more to their game, with a ruthless high press, positional discipline and complete control of the midfield.
“We started almost four years ago with an idea, and we’ve stayed faithful to it. That idea has brought us here. Today, we faced one of the best national teams in the world, but they were up against the best team in the world. That is the difference. These players deserve everything. Day after day, they’ve shown their commitment, solidarity, generosity and talent. They make the difficult look easy,” Fuente told the media later.
This effectively meant that Kylian Mbappé and Co., who had scored 16 goals in the tournament so far, kept running into a wall and managed their first shot on target only in the 81st minute. It was not Mbappé’s day, though he remains in contention for the Golden Boot, as he jointly leads the race with Lionel Messi on eight goals, with the third-place match still to come.
How did Spain, with players of average build but exceptional tactical nous, contain the explosive French captain? Whenever Mbappé received the ball, Spanish defenders doubled up on him to deny him space for his trademark diagonal runs into the middle. This effectively meant he rarely found himself in one-on-one situations against Spanish defenders, limiting him to just three shots, all of which were off target. His frustration was evident when he collided with goalkeeper Unai Simón late in the game and picked up a needless booking.
While football media marvelled at the star trio of Mbappé-Dembélé-Olise throughout the past month, Spain’s strength lay in a team-first ethos where singling out any one player for special praise would be unfair. The curly-haired Marc Cucurella vindicated Real Madrid’s investment in him during the tournament, as the left-back delivered a wholehearted defensive display, tracking and tackling Mbappé with impeccable timing time and again.
The midfield battle, as common wisdom suggests, is often the key to winning contests between evenly matched sides at this level, and Spain owe much to the work ethic of captain Rodri and Dani Olmo. Rodri, hugely respected but not always idolised like some of his peers, controlled the centre of the pitch alongside Fabián Ruiz, cutting out through balls and leaving France’s attacking trio stranded without a steady supply of service. Olmo, one of the tournament’s most underrated No. 10s, was simply everywhere.
Whenever France tried to launch a quick break, Spain responded with aggressive counter-pressing. Statistics showed that they made 22 successful tackles to disrupt the momentum, forcing the French to rebuild their attacks from scratch. The frustration grew among the 2022 runners-up as time slipped away, while the pressure of chasing the game after conceding an early goal through a contentious penalty began to take its toll.
The opening goal was the result of meticulous homework done by Spain on the French defence. Lamine Yamal, who had sparked a bit of psychological warfare by sharing an Instagram story predicting a 5-1 win for Spain on the eve of the match, kept a nervous wing-back Lucas Digne under constant pressure. That pressure forced Digne into a reckless first-half challenge inside the box, leading to a penalty converted by Mikel Oyarzabal – though the spot-kick decision ideally should have been reviewed.
A final word on Spain’s defensive discipline: the way their wingers and full-backs tracked back and took up positions meant there was hardly any sense of panic during France’s rare counter-attacks. While Spain’s full-back Pedro Porro pushed forward to score a brilliant second goal, the French attackers failed to recover quickly, leaving their defence exposed.
At the end of the day, it was the courage of conviction shown by Fuente and his men that won the day in a contest that was no less significant than a final. Don’t forget, he had the audacity earlier to name his provisional squad in May without a single Real Madrid player – a first in history. The job is only half done for him, though, as Spain now await either defending champions Argentina or England in the final.