France Vs Spain [0–2] – FIFA World Cup 2026: How Luis De La Fuente Tactics Silenced The French Attack – Tactical Analysis

France and Spain faced off in the first 2026 FIFA World Cup semi-final, in a game many believed to have been contested between the best two teams in the tournament.

This tie between two teams with very contrasting styles of play ended 2-0 in Spain's favour, thanks to goals from Mikel Oyarzabal and Pedro Porro.

France, the favourites going into this match, had football fans swooning at some of their attacking, transitional football during their run to the semi-final.

Spain, on the other hand, had conceded just one goal all tournament (in the quarter-final to Belgium's Charles De Ketelaere).

It was the Spaish who were able to assert the way they wanted this game to be played.

Spain just about shaded the possession (51% to France's 49%) but controlled the game and limited an attack that included PSG's Ousmane Dembélé and Bradley Barcola, Bayern Munich's Michael Olise, Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappé and later PSG's Désiré Doué and Manchester City's Rayan Cherki off the bench, to just 0.31 expected goals.

This World Cup tactical analysis looks at how Spain restricted France's attacking football, and how Didier Deschamps' struggle to put together the players and system to hurt their neighbours to the south.

France Vs Spain Lineups & Formations

France Lineup Vs Spain

Deschamps had a few selection headaches going into the semi-final, with Mbappé, William Saliba and Manu Koné all reportedly suffering with some level of fitness concerns.

The France manager opted to stick with the 4-2-3-1 formation that had served them well so far in Canada, USA and Mexico.

Mike Maignan started in goal, behind an unchanged back four of Jules Koundé at right-back, Lucas Digne at left-back and Dayot Upamecano and the aforementioned Saliba able to start in the middle.

Koné was unable to start the game and was replaced by Aurélien Tchouaméni, who started alongside Adrien Rabiot.

There was one change to the attacking unit from the quarter-final win over Morocco, with Barcola replacing PSG teammate Désiré Doué in the starting XI on the left-hand side.

Olise was again through the middle, with Dembélé on the right and Mbappé up front.

Saliba's injury issues meant he lasted just 30 minutes and was replaced by Crystal Palace's Maxence Lacroix, something France never seemed to recover from (more on that later).

Koné replaced Rabiot at half-time, with Doué coming on just before the hour mark for Barcola.

Theo Hernández and Rayan Cherki replaced Digne and Olise (again, both had underwhelmed) with 72 minutes on the clock.

Spain Lineup Vs France

Luis de la Fuente also went with a trusted 4-2-3-1, naming an unchanged side from the one that had beat Belgium 2-1 in Los Angeles.

Athletic Club's Unai Simón started in goal.

Porro and Marc Cucurella were the full-backs, with Pau Cubarsí and French-born Aymeric Laporte in the middle.

The experienced duo of Rodri and Fabián Ruiz were in the midfield pivot.

The attack consisted of Dani Olmo as the #10, Lamine Yamal out on the right and Álex Baena on the left.

Real Sociedad's Oyarzabal led the line once again for La Roja.

Spain were already 2-0 up by the time of their first substitution.

Ferran Torres replaced goalscorer Oyarzabal on 74', with Mikel Merino and Pedri following him three minutes later (replacing Olmo and Ruiz).

De la Fuente then brought on fresh legs with just over five minutes of normal time remaining, as Marcos Llorente and Nico Williams replaced Porro and Baena.

France Vs Spain: The Early Exchanges

This was a game between the second (Spain) and third (France) ranked teams in the world, and the early exchanges played out as you'd expect.

Spain looked to control the possession, getting the ball into the feet of their midfielders to push France back into a defensive shape.

France looked to be more direct, getting the ball to their attackers as quickly as possible and forcing the issue.

It forced a few early corners, but no real chances.

Then, 20 minutes in, France's Digne had a moment of madness.

Spain have manipulated possession well, and managed to get Cucurella into space on the left-hand side.

He plays a fairly mediocre cross into the box, and the ball comes to Digne on the left-hand side of the box, seemingly with nobody around him.

The ball bounces up off him, and he's completely unaware of his surroundings (if you watch back the highlights, you'll see no scanning from the Aston Villa left-back).

Yamal has anticipated the situation, got himself in front of Digne, takes a kick to the thigh, and wins his team a penalty.

After a VAR check (the ball hit Yamal just above the t-shirt line), Oyarzabal smashes the ball in.

Spain then controlled the game.

France's only shot after the penalty came in the 36th minute, and that was a wild Barcola shot from outside the box, with an xG of 0.03.

If anything, De la Fuente's team looked the more likely to score.

Two minutes after that shot, Spain put together the best move of the game, and one of the moves of the tournament.

If not for an Upemecano block, it would have been in World Cup montages for the rest of time.

Maignan gives the ball away cheaply, and Baena picks up the loose pass.

Rodri receives it and plays it quickly.

From there, it's one-touch football from Spain.

Yamal played quickly into Olmo.

Olmo back-heels it back to Yamal.

Yamal then plays it across the box to Ruiz, but the shot is blocked.

France Vs Spain: Porro's Killer Goal

The second half was a slow burn, and while the stats will show that France had more shots and more touches in the opposition box, the reality was that this came after Spain had made it 2-0 in the 58th minute.

The Spaniards never felt in any danger once the second goal went in (in truth, they never really felt in any danger before then, either).