It wasn’t the flashiest team on the semifinal card — and it certainly wasn’t the one with the finest World Cup record — but Spain proved its tournament bonafides by beating France 2-0 in front of a sold-out crowd in Arlington, Texas on Tuesday.
The victory sealed Spain’s spot in the 2026 FIFA World Cup final and eliminated France from the competition.
It’s a shocking result on paper. France entered the match as the outright tournament favorite after outscoring its opponents 16-2 in the opening rounds of the competition, with its captain Kylian Mbappe contributing eight goals and three assists to its total. Spain, meanwhile, struggled to get its tournament going, drawing 0-0 with Cabo Verde in its opening match and needing an extra-time winner to take down Portugal in the Round of 16.
In practice, though, it’s a result that makes perfect sense. Spain has become France’s bogey team: It eliminated it from the Euros in 2024 and the Nations League finals in 2025 before kicking it out of the World Cup in 2026.
Here are the key takeaways from Spain’s dominant semifinal display:
France got caught ball-watching
Both of Spain’s goals — a Mikel Oyarzabal penalty in the first half and a Pedro Porro run in the second — were well-worked team affairs, but neither should’ve happened. France’s players got caught watching the ball instead of Spain’s runners on both occasions, and those errors made all the difference in the end.
Take a look at French defender Lucas Digne as he concedes a penalty in the first half: