There shall be no friendly fire between neighbours-turned-foes France and Spain when they take to the field in the semi-final of the FIFA World Cup 2026.
World No. 3 Spain have not tasted defeat in more than two years. They are unbeaten in 36 matches, recording 27 wins and nine draws since losing to Colombia in March 2024. France, meanwhile, are eyeing a third consecutive World Cup final, something nobody has done since Brazil between 1994 and 2002. The World No. 2 have not lost a competitive game in more than a year. That lone defeat came against none other than Spain themselves, in the 2025 UEFA Nations League semi-final in Stuttgart, where La Roja came out 5-4 winners.
It has been the pattern of their recent history. France and Spain have met previously in three major tournament finals and one World Cup knockout match, but while France initially enjoyed the upper hand in those matchups, over the last few years, it has been Spain who have been utterly dominant, winning four of their last five matches against France across all competitions.
It was not always like this. For it was Spain who birthed the dominant France. At the 1984 European Championship final, the first ever competitive meeting between these two teams, goals from Michel Platini and Bruno Bellone gave the hosts their first ever major international title.
Germany 2006 brought the only previous World Cup meeting between the two heavyweights, as France won 3-1 in the round of 16 in Hanover. David Villa gave Spain the lead in that match with a penalty, before Franck Ribery, Patrick Vieira, and Zinedine Zidane completed an emphatic turnaround.
The 2021 UEFA Nations League final in Milan marked the end of that dominance. Mikel Oyarzabal gave Spain the lead just after the hour mark, before current captain Kylian Mbappé set up Karim Benzema’s equaliser and then scored the winner himself. That result remains France’s only victory over Spain in their last five encounters.
After that night in Milan, _La Roja_ seized control. Head coach Luis Enrique departed following the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and in came Luis de la Fuente. Promoted from the national team’s youth sides, he became the architect of the senior team’s successes.
First came twin heartbreaks for Les Bleus in 2024. In the semi-final of the European Championships in Munich, Spain came from behind to beat France 2-1. A few weeks later, in the final of the Olympic Games in Paris, Spain beat the home team 5-3 to win the gold medal. Many players from that Olympic final will feature on Tuesday. France can call upon Manu Kone, Michael Olise, Jean-Philippe Mateta, Desire Doue, Bradley Barcola and Rayan Cherki, while Spain has Pau Cubarsi and Alex Baena.
Then came that 2025 Nations League semi-final. Spain skipped to a 4-0 and 5-1 lead through goals from Nico Williams, Mikel Merino, Lamine Yamal (x2) and Pedri. A late flourish from Mbappé, Cherki, Randal Kolo Muani, and a Dani Vivian own goal made the 5-4 scoreline more respectable, but the damage was done.
This sequence of bruising defeats forced a drastic evolution. Coach Didier Deschamps, whose pragmatic setup had taken France to two World Cup finals, departed from his 4-3-3 formation to a 4-2-3-1 system, integrate his young Olympic generation and play a dynamic attacking quartet of Mbappé, Ousmane Dembele, Olise, and Doue/Barcola. Some twenty months later, that fearsome frontline has lit up the 2026 World Cup with 16 goals and 12 assists between them.
Spain, meanwhile, has built up two years of structural dominance through a suffocating system of football, controlling the tempo of their matches through sheer possession and strict counter-pressing. They have the calm of Pedri, Rodri and Olmo in midfield, the lethal edge of Yamal and Nico Williams on the flanks, and one of the best goalkeepers in the world in Unai Simón.
As the teams step onto the grass in Dallas, the sense of déjà vu will be palpable. The semi-final will finally determine whether Spain’s iron grip over this rivalry remains unbroken, or if France’s breathtaking reinvention is enough to flip the script and send _Les Bleus_ to a third consecutive World Cup final. Both nations have enjoyed dominant runs to this semi-final, but only one can break the cycle.
You’d expect nothing less from a clash between arguably the two best European teams of the decade.
