{"id":800893,"date":"2026-07-15T01:57:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T01:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/800893\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T01:57:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T01:57:12","slug":"world-cup-france-falters-at-first-real-hurdle-against-spain-as-superstars-fail-to-shine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/800893\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup: France falters at first real hurdle against Spain as superstars fail to shine"},"content":{"rendered":"

For all the hype surrounding France, it folded at the first serious examination of its World Cup credentials, its campaign ending in a spectacular collapse in a 2-0 semifinal defeat by Spain.<\/p>\n

France was every bit as poor as it had been during the opening hour of the 2022 World Cup final against Argentina.<\/p>\n

That night, however, it fought its way back, lost only on penalties and could leave with the pride of having helped produce one of the greatest World Cup games.<\/p>\n

There was no such consolation on Wednesday (AEST). This was a Spanish masterclass, and France was reduced to little more than helpless witnesses.<\/p>\n

\"Kylian<\/p>\n

Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 was frustrated with the referee, even though the referee had no real impact on the game. (Getty Images: David Buono)<\/p>\n

“The players are devastated, but we have to be clear-headed: technically, we were second best. That is on us,” coach Didier Deschamps said.<\/p>\n

It was as though those who had installed France as tournament favourite had completely misread the balance of power, and the French players themselves badly misjudged it too.<\/p>\n

“We knew their main strength was their ability to play at a false tempo [slow the game down]. At times, we should have done the same. It was more difficult than we expected,” France’s second-half substitute Rayan Cherki said.<\/p>\n

Spain, led by Lamine Yamal, who had declared with the swagger of a teenager that France were the ones who should be afraid, had understood it perfectly.<\/p>\n

The symbol of France’s resounding failure was Michael Olise.<\/p>\n

Hailed as an old-school playmaker and thrust into the Ballon d’Or conversation, Olise looked utterly lost on the Dallas Stadium pitch.<\/p>\n

\"Kylian<\/p>\n

Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 and Michael Olise both had poor games against Spain. (Getty Images: Rico Brouwer)<\/p>\n

Starved of space and ideas, he repeatedly surrendered possession and was comprehensively outclassed by Rodri, who dictated the match with ruthless authority, gliding through midfield.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old gave the ball away 20 times and failed to complete a single dribble, a damning return for the player France had expected to unlock Spain’s defence.<\/p>\n

Olise, however, was far from the only French attacker who disappeared when the stakes were highest.<\/p>\n

Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 posed almost no threat, while Bradley Barcola and his replacement, Desire Dou\u00e9, were equally blunt, leaving France’s vaunted forward line looking strangely powerless.<\/p>\n

Kylian Mbapp\u00e9’s moment of magic never arrived, and the loudest roar of the afternoon came instead when David and Victoria Beckham appeared on the giant screen.<\/p>\n

France looked vulnerable throughout against the first side at this World Cup that was willing \u2014 and able \u2014 to go toe-to-toe with it.<\/p>\n

\"Kylian<\/p>\n

Spain’s midfield maestro Rodri was sensational. (Getty Images: Shaun Botterill)<\/p>\n

Deschamps’ double pivot in midfield was quickly overrun.<\/p>\n

Adrien Rabiot picked up an early yellow card that blunted his aggression, while Aurelien Tchouameni, short of rhythm and stamina after missing the previous two games with a hamstring injury, struggled to keep pace with Spain’s midfield.<\/p>\n

The defence was left exposed, and two mistakes were punished: first with a penalty converted by Mikel Oyarzabal after 22 minutes, then by Pedro Porro’s goal just before the hour.<\/p>\n

At the final whistle, Mbapp\u00e9 stood alone on the pitch. Some of his teammates dropped to their knees, while others buried their faces in their hands.<\/p>\n

All the talk of cohesion and unity, repeated endlessly right up to the eve of the match, suddenly felt a very long way away.<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For all the hype surrounding France, it folded at the first serious examination of its World Cup credentials,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,16135,596,2592,69800,138964,107271,2020,85],"class_list":["post-800893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-football","tag-france","tag-kylian-mbappe","tag-michael-olise","tag-ousmane-dembele","tag-spain","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}