{"id":373231,"date":"2026-07-14T23:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T23:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/373231\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T23:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T23:12:08","slug":"spain-shuts-down-france-and-kylian-mbappe-advances-to-the-w","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/373231\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain shuts down France and Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, advances to the W…"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) \u2014 Spain\u2019s defensive prowess and swagger were just too much for an attacking trio led by France great Kylian Mbapp\u00e9<\/a>, and just enough to get the 2010 champions into another World Cup<\/a> final.<\/p>\n

The Spanish team managed a sixth shutout in seven games so far, winning 2-0 in the semifinals Tuesday against one of the most prolific scorers in World Cup history.<\/p>\n

Teenager Lamine Yamal certainly was correct when he said France should fear Spain. That despite FIFA’s top-ranked team being led by Mbapp\u00e9 \u2014 their captain with 20 goals in his 20 World Cup games before the semifinals \u2014 Ballon d\u2019Or winner Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 and Michael Olise, who has a tournament-high five assists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were facing the best team in the world,\u201d Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said of his players.<\/p>\n

Mikel Oyarzabal scored from the penalty spot after a heady play by Yamal drew a foul, and Pedro Porro added another goal to put Spain in its second World Cup final.<\/p>\n

A day after his 19th birthday, Yamal was denied a goal on a close offside call that came soon after Porro’s give-and-go with Dani Olmo in the 58th minute had put Spain up 2-0. But it was Yamal’s smart play against a veteran defender that gave Spain the early lead.<\/p>\n

Spain will face either defending champion Argentina or England on Sunday in East Rutherford, New Jersey, across the river from New York City. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo difficult to get to this moment, but we want more,” Spain midfielder Rodri said. \u201cWe want to win this World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

After trying to become only the third team to reach three consecutive World Cup finals, France instead will play in the third-place game in Miami Gardens, Florida, on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpain has been able to defend well,\u201d departing France coach Didier Deschamps<\/a> said through a translator. \u201cThey\u2019ve closed out all the spaces and also we\u2019ve made some technical mistakes. So it is difficult to create problems when the technical level is below standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Argentina and England<\/a> play Wednesday in Atlanta in the second powerhouse semifinal match.<\/p>\n

This win on soccer\u2019s biggest stage marked the third summer in a row that Spain beat France in a tournament semifinal match. Yamal scored in a 2-1 win in the 2024 European Championship<\/a> semifinals just days before his 17th birthday, and La Roja won 5-4 in Nations League play last year.<\/p>\n

Yamal was quick to point out that France should be concerned after Spain’s quarterfinal win over Belgium set up another semifinal matchup.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s a team who loves to have control of the game, control of the ball. That\u2019s what we let them do,” said Mbapp\u00e9, who got none of his three shots on target. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult when you don\u2019t change the play of Spain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spain has outscored opponents 12-1 since a scoreless draw against surprising Cape Verde<\/a> to open group play. The lone goal allowed by goalkeeper Unai Sim\u00f3n<\/a> was in the quarterfinal game against Belgium that snapped his World Cup record of 650 scoreless minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) \u2014 Spain\u2019s defensive prowess and swagger were just too much for an attacking trio led…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-373231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}