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Spain keep beating France when it matters. This one matters most.

France and Spain have somehow met at a World Cup only once before — 2006, a 3-1 France win capped by a stoppage-time Zinedine Zidane goal in his farewell tournament. In the twenty years since, this has grown into European football's heavyweight rivalry, and lately Spain own it: they knocked France out of the Euro 2024 semifinal behind a 25-yard equalizer from Lamine Yamal — sixteen years old that night, the youngest scorer the Euros or the World Cup has ever seen — then beat them 5-4 in June 2025, the highest-scoring match the Nations League has ever produced. Yamal turns 19 the day before this one kicks off, and he isn't pretending to be humble about any of it: 'If France should fear anyone, it's us.'

You can see why France might not fear anyone either. They've looked like the most complete team in the tournament: Kylian Mbappé became France's all-time leading scorer during the group stage, and he settled the quarterfinal against Morocco with a goal and an assist — after missing a penalty, which tells you how comfortable the 2-0 win was. Around him, Ousmane Dembélé, the reigning Ballon d'Or winner, has five goals, and Michael Olise leads the whole tournament with six assists. The knockout run reads 3-0, 1-0, 2-0, and a win here puts France in a third consecutive World Cup final — something only two nations have ever managed.

Spain's tournament is the stranger story: total control, minimal margin. The European champions didn't concede a single goal until Charles De Ketelaere's equalizer for Belgium in the quarterfinal, but at the other end they keep needing late rescues — 'every team we play sits back against us,' is Yamal's explanation — and twice in a row the rescue has been Mikel Merino: a stoppage-time winner against Portugal that sent Cristiano Ronaldo home from his last World Cup, then an 88th-minute winner against Belgium. That Portugal goal came in the same Dallas stadium that hosts this semifinal. Spain haven't dazzled, but they haven't trailed for a single minute all tournament — and they've won the last two big meetings with France.

Golden Boot

Mbappé's goal against Morocco was his eighth of the tournament — level with Messi at the top of the race and ahead on the assist tiebreaker — and the 20th of his World Cup career, closing in on the all-time record Messi took from Miroslav Klose earlier this summer.

Form

• France won Group I, then went 3-0 over Sweden, 1-0 over Paraguay and 2-0 over Morocco — Mbappé (a goal, an assist and a saved penalty) and Dembélé settled the quarterfinal.
• Spain topped their group without conceding (0-0 Cape Verde, 4-0 Saudi Arabia, 1-0 Uruguay), then beat Austria 3-0, Portugal 1-0 and Belgium 2-1 — De Ketelaere's goal for Belgium was the first Spain conceded all tournament.

Club mix

• Mbappé and Yamal sit on opposite sides of El Clásico — Real Madrid and Barcelona. France's Real Madrid block (Mbappé, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Eduardo Camavinga) counts Spain's Dani Carvajal as a club teammate.
• Spain's creative core is Barcelona's: Yamal, Pedri, Gavi, Dani Olmo and Nico Williams all play their club football there.
• Mikel Merino, Spain's two-time late match-winner, is an Arsenal teammate of France's William Saliba.

Head to head

• Only one previous World Cup meeting: the 2006 Round of 16, which France won 3-1 — David Villa's penalty answered by Ribéry, Vieira and a stoppage-time Zidane goal.
• Spain have won the last two competitive meetings: the Euro 2024 semifinal 2-1 (Yamal's wonder goal at 16, then Dani Olmo's winner) and the June 2025 Nations League semifinal 5-4, the highest-scoring match in that competition's history.