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Spain’s Pedro Porro reacts after scoring his side’s second goal during the World Cup semifinal soccer match between France and Spain in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, Tuesday, July 14, 2026.<\/p>\n
Ashley Landis\/AP Photo\/Ashley Landis<\/p>\n
France’s Kylian Mbappe reacts during a World Cup semifinal soccer match against Spain in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, Tuesday, July 14, 2026.<\/p>\n
Julio Cortez\/AP Photo\/Julio Cortez<\/p>\n
France’s Adrien Rabiot (14) and Spain’s Dani Olmo (10) go after the ball during the World Cup semifinal soccer match between France and Spain in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, Tuesday, July 14, 2026.<\/p>\n
Eric Gay\/AP Photo\/Eric Gay<\/p>\n
France’s Lucas Digne, right, fouls Spain’s Lamine Yamal in the penalty box for a Spain penalty kick during a World Cup semifinal soccer match in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, Tuesday, July 14, 2026.<\/p>\n
Julio Cortez\/AP Photo\/Julio Cortez<\/p>\n
Spain’s Mikel Oyarzabal scores the opening goal from the penalty spot past France goalkeeper Mike Maignan during the World Cup semifinal soccer match between France and Spain in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, Tuesday, July 14, 2026.<\/p>\n
Ashley Landis\/AP Photo\/Ashley Landis<\/p>\n
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, and just enough to get the 2010 champions into another World Cup final.<\/p>\n
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The Spanish team managed a record 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
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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
\u201cWe were up against one of the best national teams in the world, but today, they were facing the best team in the world,\u201d Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said.<\/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
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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 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
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Argentina and England 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 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
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Spain has outscored opponents 12-1 since a scoreless draw against surprising Cape Verde to open group play. The lone goal allowed by goalkeeper Unai Sim\u00f3n was in the quarterfinal game against Belgium that snapped his World Cup record of 650 scoreless minutes.<\/p>\n
This World Cup run has extended Spain’s unbeaten streak in regular time to 37 matches (28 wins and nine draws) since March 2024. That broke the country\u2019s previous record of 35 in a row from 2007-09.<\/p>\n
The loss broke France\u2019s record-matching streak of six consecutive World Cup wins, which the team also accomplished in the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.<\/p>\n
Oyarzabal\u2019s penalty kick in the 22nd minute came after Yamal drew a foul when kicked by defender Lucas Digne.<\/p>\n
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After a poor first touch with his head, Digne was trying to clear the ball when Yamal raced in from behind to challenge in the penalty area. The ball hit off the elbow of the leaping teen before he was kicked by Digne, playing in his 63rd game for France only six days before his 33rd birthday.<\/p>\n
Oyarzabal\u2019s fifth goal of this year\u2019s World Cup marked the first time either team had trailed in their seven games in this tournament. It was his 30th goal in 60 international games for Spain.<\/p>\n
For the second goal, Porro broke free and received a pass back from Olmo, who got the touch just before getting knocked off his feet by defender Dayot Upamecano.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew that we\u2019re a very tough team, we\u2019re doing things really well,” Porro said.<\/p>\n
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France allowed only two goals in its first six games in this tournament.<\/p>\n
Spain had two other real scoring chances in the first half.<\/p>\n
There was the a free kick from just beyond the box after Adrien Rabiot drew a yellow card for a foul on Olmo in the eighth minute. Alex Baena\u2019s kick went directly into the wall of French players.<\/p>\n
After France goalkeeper Mike Maignan\u2019s attempted clearing pass in the 38th minute instead went straight to Baena, there were several quick passes before Fabian Ruiz’s close-range shot was denied on a nifty play by Upamecano.<\/p>\n
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Mbapp\u00e9, who is tied with Argentina great Lionel Messi with a tournament-high eight goals and leads the race for the Golden Boot on the assist tiebreaker, still has the third-place match to add to his tally. Messi has two games left in his sixth World Cup to try to win the Golden Boot and also increase his overall record of 21 goals at the tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the captain, I have to take all the responsibility and I have no problem with that,\u201d Mbapp\u00e9 said. “We wanted to go to the final. We didn\u2019t go.\u201d<\/p>\n
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See more of AP\u2019s World Cup coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spain’s Pedro Porro reacts after scoring his side’s second goal during the World Cup semifinal soccer match between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[132078,132077,150,152,151,131988,132079,131778,132075,131981,73993,131987,132080,132076,131990,116755,132081,23681,59373,202,131989,59370,59371,196,88710,42094,942,88711,61262,129026,9611,128792],"class_list":["post-373546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-adrien-rabiot","tag-alex-baena","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-dani-olmo","tag-dayot-upamecano","tag-didier-deschamps","tag-fabian-ruiz","tag-france-spain-world-cup-score","tag-lionel-messi","tag-lucas-digne","tag-michael-olise","tag-mike-maignan","tag-mikel-oyarzabal","tag-mysaworldcup","tag-ousmane-dembele","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-pedro-porro","tag-product-30109-ap-texas-state-news-no-weather","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-32554-ap-online-soccer-game-stories","tag-product-32562-ap-online-other-sports-news","tag-product-40815-ap-texas-sports-only","tag-product-42059-world-cup-text","tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","tag-rodrigo-hernandez","tag-spain","tag-unai-simon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373546","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=373546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}