{"id":1508,"date":"2026-07-14T22:23:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T21:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/?p=1508"},"modified":"2026-07-14T22:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T21:50:07","slug":"spain-defeat-france-2-0to-reach-2026-fifa-world-cup-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/?p=1508","title":{"rendered":"Spain Defeat France 2-0 To Reach 2026 FIFA World Cup Final"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Lourenta Kugbere<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spain advanced to the 2026 FIFA World Cup final with a 2-0 victory over France in a highly anticipated semifinal on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, at AT&T Stadium in Dallas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The European champions delivered a controlled performance to end France\u2019s unbeaten run and book a place in their second-ever World Cup final, 16 years after winning the tournament in 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spain took the lead in the 22nd minute. Teenager Lamine Yamal, a day after his 19th birthday, forced a foul inside the box after chasing a loose ball past France defender Lucas Digne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mikel Oyarzabal converted the penalty to open the scoring \u2014 his fifth goal of the tournament. It was the first time France had trailed in their seven World Cup games and just the third goal Les Bleus had conceded all tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spain doubled their advantage in the 58th minute through Pedro Porro. The full-back finished a slick one-two with Dani Olmo to make it 2-0. It was Porro\u2019s second goal of the World Cup, both coming in the knockout rounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

France pushed for a way back into the game and coach Didier Deschamps made attacking changes, but Spain\u2019s defense held firm for a sixth clean sheet of the tournament. Goalkeeper Unai Simon was busy late on, denying a shot from Desire Doue and dealing with pressure from France\u2019s front line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

France recalled Aurelien Tchouameni to midfield and Bradley Barcola to the attack, joining Ousmane Dembele, Michael Olise and captain Kylian Mbappe up front. Mbappe entered the match as co-leader of the tournament scoring chart with eight goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spain named an unchanged side from their quarterfinal win over Belgium. Fabian Ruiz started alongside captain Rodri and Dani Olmo in midfield, with Yamal, Oyarzabal and Alex Baena leading the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

READ ALSO: Arsenal Win Premier League Title As PSG Claim Back-To-Back Champions League Crown<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysts billed the clash as a meeting of contrasting styles \u2014 Spain\u2019s possession-based approach against France\u2019s counter-attacking threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

France reached the last four after a 2-0 win over Morocco, with Mbappe scoring his eighth goal of the tournament. Les Bleus had won all six of their matches prior to the semifinal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spain progressed by edging Belgium 2-1 in the quarterfinals thanks to an 87th-minute winner from Mikel Merino. The victory extended Spain\u2019s unbeaten streak to 37 matches, matching the longest streak in international football history set by Italy between 2018 and 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the win, Spain will play in the World Cup final on Sunday, July 19, at New York New Jersey Stadium. They will face the winner of the other semifinal between England and Argentina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

France will contest the third-place match on July 18 in Miami.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The semifinal marked the second World Cup meeting between the nations. France won 3-1 in the 2006 round of 16, while Spain had also beaten Les Bleus in the Euro 2024 semifinal and the Nations League last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lourenta Kugbere Spain advanced to the 2026 FIFA World Cup final with a 2-0 victory over France in a highly anticipated semifinal on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, at AT&T Stadium in Dallas. The European champions delivered a controlled performance to end France\u2019s unbeaten run and book a place in their second-ever World Cup final, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"iawp_total_views":72,"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,14],"tags":[350,400,310],"class_list":["post-1508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-trendingnews","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-france","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1508"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1512,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508\/revisions\/1512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}