The Best Performance of the 2026 World Cup Semifinals

The rampant favorite to reach the World Cup final was unceremoniously dismantled by the tournament’s new leading contenders.

Spain was worthy winners in the first semifinal of the summer. | Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

“Today we faced one of the best national teams in the world,” Luis de la Fuente grinned after pitting his wits against France in the first 2026 World Cup semifinal, “but in front of them they had the best team in the world.”

Spain’s rampant confidence has been a theme of this summer. While the vast majority of neutrals had tripped over themselves to laud the attacking panache of France across the first six rounds of World Cup games, the reigning European champion has quietly and calming told anyone who would listen that this is its title for the taking.

“We feel capable of beating any team,” De la Fuente made it known—and that was before his side’s most complete performance of the entire tournament.

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Spain’s Quiet Run to Final Four

Spain hasn’t need its major threat Lamine Yamal (right) to be at his absolute best. | Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

• Group Stage: Cabo Verde (0–0), Saudi Arabia (4–0), Uruguay (1–0)
• Round of 32: Austria (3–0)
• Round of 16: Portugal (1–0)
• Quarterfinal: Belgium (2–1)

Spain’s opening six games had been a question of efficiency rather than anything emphatic. This is a team which has dialled down the temperature of a sport as volatile as soccer into a pure numbers game: without the ball, the opposition can’t score.

Even when Belgium’s Charles De Ketelaere ended Unai Simón’s run of 649 consecutive World Cup minutes without conceding a goal in the round of 16, there was no panic. There was no frantic flurry of crosses into the box. Aymeric Laporte did not take it upon himself to become a makeshift center forward. No, that job is saved for Mikel Merino.

Arsenal’s not-so-secret weapon from midfield spent a combined 11 minutes of normal time plus stoppages on the pitch against Portugal and Belgium. He scored both winning goals. “I look behind me and I see Mikel Merino and I think: ‘I’m calm as can be,’” De la Fuente chuckled with some justification.

Merino did have one concern of his own. “I don’t know how I’ll explain it to [my son],” the new father of a two-month-old fretted, “luckily there’s YouTube and internet and I’ll be able to show it to him because it will be hard to do with words.” Sometimes words can suffice.

So without lighting up the competition, Spain found itself in the final four against a France team which had transformed itself into the darling of the neutral. Surely there would only be one winner? To learn who that would be ahead of time, you need only have asked De la Fuente.

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La Roja Gives France the Blues in Semifinal Masterclass

First Blood to Spain in Cagey Opening

Mikel Oyarzabal (middle) fired Spain into the lead. | Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

In a game between two teams with the cohesion and quality befitting club sides, it was only natural that the opening exchanges should play out like a high spec Champions League knockout tie. Spain naturally assumed control of possession but France proved itself a threat in transition.

There was one concussive burst downfield in the 15th minute led by Ousmane Dembélé. It took the intervention of a handful of cream shirts to slow Kylian Mbappé down before the sequence was eventually snuffed out, but the threat was there. It didn’t last.

Faced with the dilemma of marking the reigning Ballon d’Or holder (Dembélé) and one of the most likely winners of the award this year (Michael Olise), Marc Cucurella took a counterintuitive approach to his defensive task: attack.

The new Real Madrid fullback raided down the left wing relentlessly, feet battering the turf, arms whipping through the air, hair enjoying a life of its own. It was from one such surge that Cucurella swung a ball to the back post which his opposite number, Lucas Digne, grossly failed to deal with. The shock Paris Saint-Germain target was too busy trying to clear his lines to spot the unmistakable figure of Lamine Yamal crashing onto the scene. The teenage phenom got his body between Digne and the ball to win his side the decisive penalty, earning a wry nod of appreciation from Mbappé in the process.

Mikel Oyarzabal extended his stellar record from the spot—the Real Sociedad captain has failed to convert just one of his last 19 penalties—to paint the game a completely different shade of Spanish superiority.

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France’s Soloists Have Their Instruments Taken Away

France’s World Cup run came to a screeching halt against Spain. | Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

In this battle between control and chaos, Spain’s greatest example of ascendancy came between its two goals. In that 36-minute spell on either side of halftime, De la Fuente’s side limited this free-flowing iteration of France to just one shot, which was off target.

It wasn’t that Spain racked up the kind of possession figures which Argentina would enjoy against England, La Roja simply didn’t allow Les Bleus to have the ball in any areas of consequence.

To drink in France’s pass map during this beguiling passage of play (see below, as provided by Opta) is to see a game played entirely on Spain’s terms. Not only is there no whisper of a touch of significance in Simón’s penalty box, but Mbappé and Co. can’t even get towards the edge of the area. This is the soccer equivalent of a child keeping their younger sibling at bay with nothing more than an outstretched hand on their head.

France simply couldn’t get into Spain’s danger areas. | Opta Analyst

Spain, however, had no issue strolling through France’s rearguard.

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Spain’s Second Goal Sums Up the Team’s Brilliance

No one controls like Spain do. pic.twitter.com/BfeQkfH642

— Sports Illustrated FC (@SI_FootballClub) July 14, 2026

In the space of two minutes, Spain strung together 18 passes between eight different players, moving the ball from its own penalty area and into the back of France’s net.

While the balletic grace of this sequence was enough to astound, particularly the layoff from Dani Olmo for Pedro Porro which was softer than candlelight, the ferocity with which Spain won possession back (twice) was just as important.

France had no joy pushing up to press Spain—if anything, that’s exactly what De la Fuente wanted. As Mbappé bitterly pointed out postmatch, that strategy was always unlikely to work with just two midfielders. Didier Deschamps would lament that one of those midfielders wasn’t Adrien Rabiot, who was forcibly removed at halftime after picking up an early yellow card.

Even with AC Milan’s mercurial maverick on the pitch, France would have struggled to contain Spain’s dizzying skein of passes. This numerical inferiority was highlighted about halfway through the sequence of play which let to the second goal, as Olmo—Spain’s third midfielder—received the ball in a yawning chasm of clear green grass after running off the back of France’s central duo.

“It is wonderful to watch them play,” De la Fuente gushed at the final whistle, more giddy spectator than coach. “Today was a spectacle. What seems difficult, this team makes it look easy.” There’s little doubt that beating Spain will be exceedingly difficult.

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