World Cup 2026: Spain, France's tormentor

14.07.26 FT World Cup

France

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Spain

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Spain has once again proven to be France's nemesis in recent years. This marks the third semi-final defeat for Les Bleus against this opponent in the past two years.

Favorites on paper—and based on their performances so far—France crashed out against Spain (0-2) in the semi-finals of the World Cup .

Didier Deschamps' men have now lost a third straight semi-final clash to La Roja and will miss out on a third consecutive World Cup final.

Already beaten by the same opponent in the semi-finals of Euro 2024 (2-1) and the 2025 Nations League semi-final (5-4), Kylian Mbappé and his teammates suffered the same fate Tuesday night in Dallas.

This statistic starkly contrasts with Les Bleus' history: before these three encounters, they had won all nine of their previous semi-finals across all competitions.

While Spain now awaits the winner between Argentina and England in the final, France will face the loser in the third-place play-off of this 2026 World Cup.

Didier Deschamps in the hot seat

The head coach of Les Bleus shoulders much of the blame for this World Cup 2026 failure.

The former Juventus Turin man arguably failed to respect La Roja as he should have, sticking with the same 4-2-3-1 attacking setup against a side renowned for dominating possession and exploiting spaces between the lines.

The result: France were completely suffocated in midfield, unable to break through the web woven by Luis de la Fuente.

Moreover, starting Aurélien Tchouaméni over Adrien Rabiot destabilized the midfield even further, especially since the Madrid player, only just back from injury, was not mentally, physically, or technically ready for such a battle.

DD slammed on social media

The man at the helm of Les Bleus has not been spared online, as these posts on “X” show:

We’re finally opening our eyes. Deschamps is a fraud

Yesterday, terrible

In 2024, barely scraping by. Pulverized by Spain

In 2022, we started playing in the 80th minute of the final

In 2018, we won it with Matuidi at left wing

Croatia deserved it more than us

— Geom45 (@JeromeSalgado6) July 15, 2026

Deschamps is useless unless he’s facing the Faroe Islands! Instead of yelling from the bench, do your job with tactical changes or player substitutions. Leaving Digne on after that foul? Tchouaméni should stay on YouTube

— abdel (@karatinka31) July 15, 2026

Deschamps with a €1B squad for 15 years
WC 2014 OK, nice rebuild
Euro 2016 lose to Sporting FC
WC 2018, got lucky but won
Euro 2021, dreadful
WC 2022, most uninspired football in history
Euro 2024, I don’t even remember
WC 2026, useless piece of shit

— Løuis (@UsernameCoolos) July 15, 2026

Thank you Deschamps and bring on Zidane! Sick of these hierarchies! Honestly sick of it! If you’re not good enough, you sit on the bench, that’s it #FRAESP

— wesley-snaap (@Abdel80344839) July 15, 2026

Imed Ben Amara |

Editorar, fr

Imed Ben Amara - bilingual sports writer and web editor with experience in football content creation. Since 2021, he has contributed to Foot Africa, providing news coverage and analysis.

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