Overview
France and Spain, the top two candidates for the 2026 World Cup championship, will face off in the highly anticipated semi-finals at the Dallas stadium.
Les Bleus extended their impressive streak with a 2-0 victory over Morocco in the quarter-finals, thereby raising their winning streak at the 2026 World Cup to 6 consecutive matches. They are aiming to become the second European team in history to win 7 consecutive matches at a World Cup, after Italy in 1934 and 1938.
This is also the eighth time France has reached the World Cup semi-finals, only 12 times behind Germany's record. After three consecutive defeats at the 1958, 1982 and 1986 World Cups, Les Bleus have passed the semi-finals in all four recent times in 1998, 2006, 2018 and 2022, and kept a clean sheet in the last three times.
If they continue to surpass Spain, France will repeat the achievements of Germany (1982, 1986, 1990) and Brazil (1994, 1998, 2002) of reaching three consecutive World Cup finals.
Kylian Mbappe continues to be the leader of the French team at this year's tournament. Despite having to leave the field due to an ankle injury in the match against Morocco, this striker is likely to recover in time to play in the semi-finals.
On the other side, Spain possesses the most solid defense in the league. Coach Luis de la Fuente's team has only conceded one goal, which was a header by Charles De Ketelaere in the 2-1 victory over Belgium in the quarter-finals.
Once again, Mikel Merino became a hero from the bench. After scoring the decisive goal against Portugal in the round of 16, he continued to score goals to bring victory in the quarter-finals, becoming the first player in World Cup history to score a decisive goal in 2 consecutive knockout matches when coming on as a substitute.
Not only maintaining high form at the World Cup, Spain has also shown stability in recent years. Since the 2018 World Cup, La Roja has only lost one of 27 matches in major tournaments, with a record of 16 wins and 10 draws.
The bullfighting team is also unbeaten in 14 consecutive matches since the 1-2 defeat to Japan at the 2022 World Cup. In this series of matches, they have only conceded 5 goals and have never conceded more than one goal in a match, while keeping a clean sheet nine times.
That stable form helped Spain reach the World Cup semi-finals for the second time. The last time they reached this round was in 2010, a tournament where La Roja then won the championship.
In seven semi-final appearances in major tournaments, Spain has only been eliminated once, when they lost to Italy in a penalty shootout at EURO 2020 after a 1-1 draw.
Head-to-head record
This is only the second time France and Spain have faced each other at the World Cup. The previous confrontation took place in the round of 16 of the 2006 World Cup, when Les Bleus came back to win 3-1 thanks to 2 goals in the last 10 minutes of the match.
However, considering all competitions, Spain is dominating in recent encounters. La Roja has only lost two of their last 10 encounters with France, winning seven and drawing one match, and winning all two recent encounters.
Score prediction: France 2-3 Spain
The match between France and Spain takes place at 2:00 AM on July 15 (Vietnam time).
