Spain beat France in the FIFA World Cup semifinal, and France were left with their worst World Cup result since 2014. The defeat sent them to Miami for the bronze medal game instead of the final, while Spain moved on with control that France never matched.
Kylian Mbappé, the 21-year-old forward at the center of France’s attack, did not dress it up. He said France did not play the match they wanted to play tactically, technically, or in overall performance level, and that when a team fails to do what it is supposed to do in a semifinal, it does not win. He added that France wanted to press Spain high up the pitch and stop them settling into their slow rhythm, but did not manage it. When Spain dictate the pace, Mbappé said, they are better at controlling the game.
That is what made the result sting beyond the score line. France had gone into the tournament as one of its great entertainers, carried by attacking talent and the expectation that they could turn pressure into spectacle. Instead, Spain produced a suffocating display of control and France were pushed into the kind of ending that exposes as much as it rewards. L’Équipe showed how harsh that verdict was, handing Michael Olise, Ousmane Dembélé and Lucas Digne twos and giving Mbappé a three for his semifinal showing.
The contrast was sharp. France were judged on the promise they carried into the match and the way they fell away from it. Spain controlled the semifinal, France could not get close enough to alter it, and the low marks reflected that gap as much as the result itself. The loss also confirmed a plain fact: France finished with their worst World Cup result since 2014, the last time they had gone deeper than this tournament has allowed them now.
Attention now splits between two final stops. France go to Miami for the bronze medal game, while Spain head to the New York New Jersey Stadium, where Fifa has already announced a separate closing ceremony featuring Laura Pausini, Nicole Scherzinger, Robbie Williams and IShowSpeed, with Tom Cruise also mentioned in the plans. France’s campaign is not over, but after this defeat the remaining match is about salvage, not silverware.
