ARLINGTON, Texas — Spain head coach Luis de la Fuente said he knows France are a much better team than the one they defeated in the Euro 2024 semifinals two years ago.
Spain play France in the FIFA World Cup semifinals at AT&T Stadium on Tuesday, with Spain looking to advance to just a second World Cup final in the nation’s history.
“France are much better now than what they were when we faced them before,” De La Fuente said. “Individually, they have grown. [Kylian] Mbappé is better, [Ousmane] Dembélé is better. As a team, they are better. We have also improved as well.”
In that previous semifinal, Lamine Yamal and Dani Olmo scored within four minutes of each other as Spain erased an early deficit and win 2-1. They would go on to defeat England by the same score in the final.
Mbappé assisted a goal from Randal Kolo Muani, but Dembélé played a quiet 79 minutes, and both Michael Olise and Désiré Doué, two of France’s breakout stars this summer, weren’t selected for that team.
When the teams met again last summer in the semifinals of the UEFA Nations League, Spain won a wild match, charging to a 4-0 lead before holding on to win 5-4. Mbappé, Dembélé, Olise and Doué were all in the starting lineup for that one. Mbappe had a goal and an assist.
In the World Cup thus far, the quintet of Mbappé, Dembélé, Olise, Doue and Bradley Barcola have combined for 16 goals (eight from Mbappé) and 12 assists (five from Olise). France have scored 16 goals and allowed just two in six World Cup matches.
“We’ve studied France very carefully,” De La Fuente said. “Their footballing quality is exceptional. But so is ours. The objective is to prevent those players from running freely, stop them from connecting with each other, and reduce the impact of their strengths as much as possible. That’s football.”
Spain have scored five fewer goals than France in this World Cup, but they have also allowed only one. They didn’t concede a goal for the first 490 minutes of the competition until Belgium‘s Charles De Ketelaere scored late in the first half of their quarterfinal matchup, an eventual 2-1 Spain win.
France and Spain have been frequently called the two biggest favorites in the tournament, and are ranked No. 1 and No. 3 by FIFA, respectively.
“I’ve said before that this could easily have been the tournament final,” De La Fuente added. “The other semifinal between Argentina and England could also be considered a World Cup final. The four remaining teams are among the best in the FIFA rankings — the four best in the world.
“That means we have to keep improving. We must eliminate unnecessary mistakes. We can’t give the opponent easy opportunities. We need to control the game as much as possible. We have to be disciplined and intelligent in both penalty areas, defensively and offensively. Those are the messages we’ll give our players.”
The winner will face either Argentina or England in the final in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on July 19.
