France vs. Spain: A Super Clash to Determine the First World Cup 2026 Finalist

After a two-day hiatus, the World Cup returns with the first of four remaining matches. Tonight, familiar rivals France and Spain clash at AT&T Stadium at 10:00 PM Bulgarian time in the first semi-final showdown. The winner will vie for the trophy against either England or the reigning world champions, Argentina.

Third in the FIFA rankings, France 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' squad has been the most convincing team at World Cup 2026 so far. "Les Bleus" have won all six of their matches, predictably topping Group I before successively eliminating Sweden, Paraguay, and Morocco. They have scored 16 goals to date, half of which belong to Kylian Mbappé, who continues his pursuit of the tournament's top scorer award.

Beyond captaining the 1998 World Cup-winning team on home soil, Deschamps will today manage his 26th World Cup match as coach, surpassing Helmut Schön's long-standing record. France has advanced in all of their last four World Cup semi-final appearances. Furthermore, "Les Bleus" won the only previous World Cup encounter between these two nations, coming from behind to secure a 3-1 victory 20 years ago.

However, Spain holds the overall statistical advantage, with "La Furia Roja" winning 18 of the 38 meetings between the two teams. The Spaniards have also emerged victorious in seven of their last 10 matches against "Les Bleus." France has 13 wins in total.

In the Euro 2024 semi-finals, Spain triumphed 2-1, and last year, they won the Nations League final 5-4. These were the last two encounters between the teams before today's clash.

Luis de la Fuente's team, ranked second in FIFA, won 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 came courtesy of Mikel Merino.

For the reigning European champions, this marks only their second World Cup semi-final. Their first was in South Africa 16 years ago, where Spain ultimately lifted the trophy.

Since the start of the 2018 tournament in Russia, the Spaniards have lost only one of 27 major tournament matches, remaining unbeaten in their last 14 encounters.

Kylian Mbappé is fully fit for the semi-final, despite being substituted in the quarter-final due to issues. The same applies to Manu Koné. Aurélien Tchouaméni was recovering from a thigh injury but will be available for Deschamps in today's clash.

Mikel Oyarzabal, who has four goals in the World Cup so far, will lead Spain's attack. The big question for local media is whether Pedri will start or remain on the bench, as he did against Belgium. If he doesn't start, Fabián Ruiz might be benched or move further forward in place of Dani Olmo, who could then shift to the left flank, potentially costing Alex Baena his starting spot. However, it's more likely that De la Fuente will avoid these internal reshuffles and stick with the same starting XI that faced Belgium.