{"id":398876,"date":"2026-07-15T04:19:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T04:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/398876\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T04:19:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T04:19:16","slug":"spain-delivers-surprise-rout-of-france-reaches-world-cup-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/398876\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain delivers surprise rout of France, reaches World Cup final"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ARLINGTON, Texas\u00a0\u2014\u00a0In a World Cup<\/a> boasting a galaxy of stars, a lunch-bucket team of blue-collar everymen may wind up outshining them all.<\/p>\n

Spain clinched a berth to the final Tuesday by smothering France 2-0 at AT&T Stadium, running its unbeaten streak to 37 games while eliminating a team that had run roughshod through the tournament.<\/p>\n

And it wasn\u2019t even close. France came into the game<\/a> with 16 goals, second only to Argentina in the tournament, then failed to put a shot on goal in the first 81 minutes.<\/p>\n

It had Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, who is tied with Lionel Messi for the scoring lead this summer and was the Golden Boot winner four years ago in Qatar. He was all but invisible until, frustrated, he felled Spanish keeper Unai Sim\u00f3n with a cheap shot in the final minutes, drawing a well-deserved yellow card.<\/p>\n

France couldn\u2019t even score into an open net, with Desire Doue lining a low shot right at a rapidly retreating Sim\u00f3n, who had come well off his line and left the goal unattended. For Sim\u00f3n, Tuesday\u2019s clean sheet was his sixth in seven games in this tournament.<\/p>\n

Spain will meet the winner of Wednesday\u2019s second semifinal between England and reigning champion Argentina on Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.<\/p>\n

\"France's <\/p>\n

France\u2019s Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 reacts after losing to Spain during a World Cup semifinal in Arlington, Texas, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

(Julio Cortez \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever comes, comes,\u201d teenage center back Pau Cubars\u00ed said in Spanish. \u201cI don\u2019t think I want any of them. Let it be God\u2019s will. We\u2019re going to New York and then we\u2019ll figure out who needs to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winning with defense may not be attractive, but it\u2019s certainly been effective. And for Spain, the approach certainly fits with its team-first mentality.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was some talk that our defense and goalkeeping weren\u2019t up to par. But I think we\u2019ve silenced a lot of critics,\u201d Cubars\u00ed said. \u201cWe\u2019ve only conceded one goal and we\u2019re in the final.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a team effort, both those who play and those on the bench.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added right back Pedro Porro: \u201cWe\u2019re just continuing to work with humility. We\u2019ve been doing things right and building on our strengths. We\u2019ve also been correcting the things we haven\u2019t done well. We\u2019re just taking it step by step.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t so much that France played poorly, although it did. It was that Spain forced it to play that way.<\/p>\n

France had never trailed in the tournament, but it fell behind in this one on Mikel Oyarzabal\u2019s successful penalty shot in the 22nd minute. Lucas Digne was called for the foul when he chested down an errant pass from Spain\u2019s Marc Cucurella on the edge of the 18-yard box, then reached out his left boot to control it, only to catch the leg of Spain\u2019s Lamine Yamal who was charging in from the blind side.<\/p>\n

Salvadoran referee Iv\u00e1n Barton immediately pointed to the spot and Oyarzabal stepped up and obliged, beating French keeper Mike Maignan into the side netting at the right post for his fifth goal of the tournament. The score was the first Maignan had allowed in the knockout rounds, breaking a 360-minute scoreless streak and it would be all Spain would need to get to the final for the first time since 2010, when it won its only World Cup.<\/p>\n

\"Spain <\/p>\n

Spain goalkeeper Unai Sim\u00f3n makes a save in front of France\u2019s Theo Hernandez during a World Cup semifinal in Arlington, Texas, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

(Jessica Tobias \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Maignan didn\u2019t do any better on the second shot he faced, this one coming 13 minutes into the second half when Porro came in alone on the keeper, then used his right foot to flick the ball by the goalkeeper to double Spain\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son couldn\u2019t come today because he\u2019s feeling a little under the weather with a fever,\u201d said Porro, who dedicated his goal to the boy. \u201cIt was a mix of emotions because he couldn\u2019t be here, and then his dad scored a goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to look out at the stands and the only people there were my partner, my father-in-law and my physical therapist.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Porro, the goal was a measure of redemption as well. There were doubters when coach Luis de la Fuente named him to the World Cup team and those critics grew louder when de la Fuente made him a starter.<\/p>\n

But those critics fell notably silent Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have to prove anything to anyone,\u201d Porro said. \u201cObviously, I never imagined \u2014 not even in my wildest dreams \u2014 that I\u2019d be playing in this World Cup the way I am.<\/p>\n

\"Spain's <\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s Pedro Porro celebrates after beating France during a World Cup semifinal Tuesday in Arlington, Texas.<\/p>\n

(Florencia Tan Jun \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s also thanks to my teammates, and thanks to the coach for the confidence he\u2019s shown in me from the very beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spain hasn\u2019t lost a game in the knockout phase of a World Cup since 2006 \u2014 when it fell to France \u2014 playing to draws in the round of 16 in the past two tournaments before being eliminated both times on penalties. They didn\u2019t let it come down to that this time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in a final. It\u2019s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,\u201d said Cubars\u00ed, 19. \u201cMaybe I\u2019m still too young for everything I\u2019m going through right now. But soccer is something to be enjoyed. Opportunities will come your way if you\u2019re willing to make sacrifices and all that.\u201d<\/p>\n

For French coach Didier Deschamps, meanwhile, the loss marked his penultimate game with a team he\u2019s taken to two World Cup finals in 15 years as coach. He had earlier announced he would be stepping aside after the tournament. Instead of capping raucous Bastille Day celebrations in France with a trip to the World Cup final, Deschamps and his squad will travel to Miami to play in the third-place game.<\/p>\n

Some players knelt at the final whistle, head down, staring at the turf.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s obviously a lot of disappointment,\u201d Deschamps said. \u201cThe players are devastated because we had high hopes. Even so, we have to be realistic and acknowledge that today we were a step behind technically against a team that played very well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s our fault, first and foremost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, not really. The credit should go to Spain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON, Texas\u00a0\u2014\u00a0In a World Cup boasting a galaxy of stars, a lunch-bucket team of blue-collar everymen may wind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[19294,7833,47780,9831,24418,423,2194,48,52,51,47,50,49,160175,160177,160176,160174,35345,12967,8843,5393],"class_list":["post-398876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-argentina","tag-critic","tag-final-minute","tag-first-time","tag-france","tag-game","tag-goal","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-lunch-bucket-team","tag-mikel-oyarzabal","tag-pau-cubarsi","tag-pedro-porro","tag-spain","tag-tournament","tag-way","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}