France and Spain renew European rivalry in World Cup semi-final

France will play Spain in the World Cup semi-final at Dallas Stadium on Tuesday at 8:00pm, with the winner advancing to face either England or Argentina in Sunday's final. The fixture guarantees a European side will compete for the sport's biggest prize.

The match is a direct rematch of the Euro 2024 semi-final, a game where Spain eliminated France to assert their dominance on the continent. Lamine Yamal, who scored in that victory as a 17-year-old, turned 19 on Monday and arrived in Dallas harbouring no doubts. "I believe if France has to fear anyone, it should be us, in my opinion," he said. "We were the ones that knocked them out before."

Yamal enters the clash with one goal and 10 shots on target despite carrying a left hamstring issue that forced him to miss the final weeks of his club season with Barcelona. "It's the most important match I'm going to play," he said Monday, adding his best birthday gift would be a victory and trip to the final. "We are all so excited, especially me."

France reached the last four by beating Morocco 2-0, though captain Kylian Mbappe picked up a minor ankle injury and missed part of Monday's final training session. "Kylian is fine," France coach Didier Deschamps told reporters, adding: "Yes, he trained. He is allowed to do 10 minutes in one drill instead of 15."

Despite France's relatively untroubled path to the semi-finals, Deschamps insisted the favourite tag belongs to Spain. "If you see what they've done in the first match against Cap Verde, ok, we forget about that match, but about the rest, Spain confirmed that they are the favourites," Deschamps said.

Deschamps declined to add pressure to his Spanish counterpart, noting that public expectations are already squarely on La Roja. "I don't want to add extra pressure to Luis and their team. He knows very well that people are expecting greatly of Spain," he said.

The European champions have conceded just one goal in their last six or seven matches, setting up a tactical clash between two defensive managers. "But Spain, can they attack as well? Yes and they can defend very well as well they only conceded one goal and in the last six or seven matches." "So we know that this might be a spectacular game with two teams with plenty of quality offensively, but Luis and myself, well, we know how to defend well, but with the quality of the two teams offensively, I think we could think that it's going to be a spectacular game."