Let this be a lesson for everyone foolish enough to cast Spain as underdogs. How they enjoyed dishing it out here, reducing France to passengers and surely guaranteeing nobody will make the same mistake twice. They will be favourites to win Sunday’s final, whether that turns out to be a rerun against England or a time-bending meeting of Lamine Yamal and Lionel Messi, and those minded to back against Luis de la Fuente’s side will need a mightily compelling reason.
France never came close to finding one. Kylian Mbappé had one last go in added time, shooting harmlessly over, and his forlorn expression upon glancing up to check the clock said more than enough. He knew the game was up but, in truth, that had barely been in question since midway through the first half. Spain smothered France but outplayed them too, picking their moments to penetrate and adding a beautifully worked goal from the rampaging Pedro Porro.
It was ultimately a triumph of function over form. That is not to play down the magic that sparkles from Lamine Yamal’s boots or the fizzing invention of Dani Olmo, who was behind most of Spain’s best attacking work. The point is that their collective swamped the individual flair of France, whose front four had run amok earlier in the tournament but were reduced to faulty, spluttering components by a superbly oiled machine.
Spain knew they would need to assert control and deny France any oxygen on the transition. They were perfectly happy to let long stretches pass with little happening, popping the ball between their constantly available midfielders and breaking up play by fair means or foul if they were caught out. It did them no harm that France operated with a bewildering lack of intensity and they were given a leg-up for their opener, too.
The first half had dripped with mutual respect until Lucas Digne, tasked with defending Marc Cucurella’s cross from the left, nodded the ball up in the air and shaped to smack it clear. He was oblivious to the onrushing Lamine Yamal, who nudged it past him and was sent flying. Iván Barton, the referee, hardly needed to think twice about awarding a penalty but there was still the question of whether the video assistant referee would intervene. Lamine Yamal, launching himself through the air, had used his upper arm to make contact but was deemed to have connected legally above the sleeve line.
Such debates were of no interest to Mikel Oyarzabal, who dispatched comfortably. From there Spain produced a masterclass. France did not create a chance before the interval, unless one is generous enough to note Unai Simón dashing from his box to clear ahead of Mbappé.
In the end Didier Deschamps, two wins from undisputed greatness having led another team to the business end, got the big calls wrong. He recalled the fit-again Aurélien Tchouaméni but the midfield barely strung anything together. Bradley Barcola was preferred on the left to Désiré Doué but showed no composure on the rare occasions he made ground.
It hardly helped that William Saliba departed through injury shortly after Oyarzabal’s spot-kick. Nor did it assist that Adrien Rabiot, booked early for a foul on Olmo, was a walking yellow card from that moment and made way at half-time. The introduction of Manu Koné made only a modest difference; France were outnumbered in the middle, any supply to Michael Olise stifled and the playmaker forced to seek influence in uncomfortable areas. By the end Olise, a star for most of the summer, was watching from the sidelines as Rayan Cherki was tasked with summoning a miracle.
Nothing came off on those rare occasions when France could mount a sustained threat, Ousmane Dembélé enduring a particularly sub-par afternoon summed up when he overcooked a simple pass for the overlapping Jules Koundé. By contrast Spain mixed care with precision. Add a little flair and you have the recipe for their second goal, forged when a tumbling Olmo managed to return Porro’s pass into his path. A chasm had appeared in France’s left side, pressure on those swarming white jerseys nonexistent. Porro surged into it and gave Mike Maignan no chance.
The outcome was beyond doubt. A narrow offside call denied Lamine Yamal, heavily involved if not quite central to proceedings, a third goal. The substitute Ferran Torres headed wide and the lack of belief from France, who cut the figure of a team that could not comprehend their fate, was palpable from the stands. Mbappé awoke with an angled effort that Simón batted behind, shortly afterwards seeing Cucurella deflect a shot wide, but France were never allowed a serious opening.
Under Deschamps’ successor they will have to seek the kind of long-term identity, which mixes discipline and diligence with daring, that Spain laid down so devastatingly here. Mbappé, whose eagerness to wash away the near miss in 2022 had been manifestly clear over the past month, must stew for another four years.
In the meantime Spain, pulsing with assuredness and belief, will take some stopping.
