La Roja Shuts Down France to Book a Place in the World Cup Final
- Philip Fox
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
Credit Opta Analyst
NATIONAL SOCCER NEWS: www.nationalsoccernetwork.com
On July 14th in Arlington, Texas, two of the best teams in the world took center stage in the first of the two semi-final matches to decide the world's best football team! France arrived dominantly, winning every match of the tournament thus far. Les Bleus had only given up two goals in the tournament before the semifinal matchup. La Roja took a similar route, only allowing their net to ripple once. This match was like an immovable object met an unstoppable force.
France started in a 4-2-3-1 formation under French manager Didier Deschamps. Mike Maignan started in goal. The defensive four had Jules Koundé at right back, Dayot Upamecano and William Saliba as the center-back duo, and Lucas Digne at left back. The French defensive midfielders were Aurélien Tchouaméni and Adrien Rabiot. In the attacking midfield, Ousmane Dembélé started on the right wing, Michael Olise in attacking midfield, and Bradley Barcola on the left wing. In the striker position was French captain Kylian Mbappé.
Spain lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation as well, with Spanish manager Luis de la Fuente at the helm. In goal, Unai Simón started between the posts. Spain’s defensive four were Pedro Porro at right back, Pau Cubarsí at center back, Aymeric Laporte also at center back, and Marc Cucurella started at left back. In the defensive midfield, captain Rodri and Fabián Ruiz started. In the attacking midfield, Lamine Yamal started on the right wing, Dani Olmo started in the attacking mid position, and Álex Baena started on the left wing. Mikel Oyarzabal took the striker position.
The match started, and the tensions were high. Both teams struggled to get the ball and string together any passing. France got the first corner but couldn’t capitalize on the early opportunity. Rabiot was the first in the referee’s book, getting a yellow card on the edge of the box in the 9th minute. In about 10 minutes, Spain sent a cross into the box, which went to the chest of Digne. Digne pulled back to put all his power into clearing the dangerous ball, but Yamal threw himself between the defender and the ball, took the brunt of the power, and earned the foul in the penalty box. Mikel Oyarzabal stepped up for Spain and blasted the ball past the diving Maignan. Spain now led one to nil. This would be the first time France had fallen behind in the World Cup. The first half ended with Spain controlling 56% of the possession, taking a total of five shots, but the only one on target was the penalty shot. France ended up taking two shots, neither on target.
The second half continued to go Spain's way, and in the 58th minute Porro added another goal for Spain. Olmo hit a perfectly weighted pass in front of the right back, who ran onto the ball and powered it past the French goalie. After that, France started to kick it into gear and looked more like the team that we were used to seeing throughout the tournament. They dropped deeper and took more shots on goal after the 75th minute, but the French could not get a goal past the Spanish defense. Spain finished the game with 51% possession, taking 10 shots, two of which were on target, and those two were the difference-makers. France took 10 total shots, three of them on target, but with an expected goal XG of only .31, the shots that were on target were at a bad angle on the right side or from far away, which went right to the goalie every single time.
The two powerhouses came to Texas for a chance to go on to ultimate glory for their nation. Spain walked out victorious, while France was left behind, questioning what they were doing on the field that day. It did not feel like the typical high-octane French attacking team we had seen throughout the tournament. France is set to play again on Saturday, July 18th, against England in the third-place bronze-medal final, while Spain is set to head to East Rutherford, New Jersey, to prepare for the championship match against Argentina on Sunday, July 19th.
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