New Delhi: Spain defeated France 2-0 at the Dallas Stadium in the 2026 FIFA World Cup semi-final early Wednesday. With this, La Roja has defeated Les Bleus in three major competitions—the Euro 2024 semi-final, Nations League semi-final in 2025 and the World Cup this year. This makes a historic trilogy for Spain.
Luis de la Fuente’s disciplined side successfully neutralised Kylian Mbappe and the French attack to reach their second-ever World Cup final.
“Fear? No fear. We are the European champions. We fear nobody,” teenage Spanish sensation Lamine Yamal said ahead of the match.
In another interview, Yamal denied that France is better than Spain.
“They haven’t beaten us since Euros 2024. So, they can’t be better than us,” he had said.
‘New York, we’re coming for you’
On Wednesday, the 19-year-old failed to find the net. However, his tactical intelligence and quick footwork forced France’s left-back Lucas Digne to commit a foul in the penalty box in the 20th minute. This led to a penalty kick, which Mikel Oyarzabal converted to give Spain an early 1-0 advantage.
Moreover, at 19 years and 1 day old, he became the second-youngest player in the last 60 years to draw a penalty in a FIFA World Cup knockout stage game, trailing only England’s Michael Owen, who achieved the feat in 1998. He also completed 24 of 27 passes, maintaining 89 per cent accuracy.
After the match, Yamal posted a few photos of the match on Instagram with the caption, “New York, we’re coming for you.”
Meanwhile, French captain Mbappe took the blame after the defeat.
“You take all the glory when you win, when you don’t win, but you have to take the blame. It’s part of my game, my life, and as captain I have to take all the responsibility. We wanted to go to the final, we didn’t and we have to take what people say to us,” Mbappe told Fox Sports after the match.
With the loss, France were denied the chance to three consecutive World Cup finals.
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37-match unbeaten run
Spain arrived in the semi-final unbeaten in 37 international matches, matching Italy’s European record for the longest unbeaten run. The streak has not been built against ordinary opposition—it has survived encounters with some of the strongest teams in world football.
While France historically dominated their matches in major competitive tournament knockouts throughout the late 20th and early 2000s, Spain has completely flipped the script. It has built a dominant modern record, winning the last three consecutive semi-final clashes against France across three different tournaments.
“We did it with discipline, organised, commitment, effort, we interpreted well all the game facets. That’s what we do best as Spanish players, interpreting and how to (handle) defensive phases in the midfield,” Fuente said. “The message was we’re facing one of the best national teams, but they would have in front of them the best team. That’s the key. We are a team. When we play like a team, we’re unbeatable.”
Spain has booked their place in the 2026 FIFA World Cup final, producing another mature performance against France. England or Argentina will be the final test of whether this is simply Spain’s best run—or the beginning of a new era.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)