France and Spain Lineups: Tchouaméni Returns (Watch Live)

France and Spain are set to clash in the first semi-final of the North American World Cup. The winner will vie for the trophy against either England or the reigning world champions, Argentina.

Didier Deschamps has made two changes from the match against Paraguay. Aurélien Tchouaméni returns to the starting lineup after recovering from injury, replacing Manu Koné. Bradley Barcola has been preferred over Désiré Doué.

The French squad aims to become only the third team in history to reach three consecutive World Cup finals, a feat previously achieved solely by Germany and Brazil. With today being France's national holiday, "Les Bleus" will be even more motivated to bring joy to their compatriots. Didier Deschamps' side has been the most convincing team at the 2026 World Cup so far. They have won all six of their matches, topping Group I as expected, then successively eliminating Sweden, Paraguay, and Morocco, scoring 16 goals to date. Half of these goals belong to Kylian Mbappé, who continues his pursuit of the tournament's Golden Boot.

Luis de la Fuente's team topped Group H, despite a disappointing goalless draw against Cape Verde to start their campaign. In the knockout stages, they comfortably overcame Austria before securing hard-fought victories against Portugal and Belgium. In both of those matches, late winning goals were scored by Mikel Merino. For the current European champions, this marks only their second World Cup semi-final. Their first was in South Africa 16 years ago, where Spain ultimately won the title. Since the start of the 2018 tournament in Russia, the Spaniards have lost only one of 27 matches in major championships and are currently unbeaten in their last 14 encounters.