Knockout Stage General Discussion Thread

They were just outplayed in every way by a more complete team.

 

Let's not act like a lucky penalty did not allow Spain to play their game.

Either way Frances response has been very poor.

 

Spain looked better even before the valid penalty.

Still have to score on the penalty too. We have seen big names miss in this tournament.

 

Very strange but - as I have thought for a while - maintaining excellent form for five weeks is very difficult.

 

Spain has their number. Better than them in the Euro. Better than them in the NL. Now better than them in the World Cup.

 

The Euro Champs are in the Final. Just like in 2010.

Will it be a rematch of the Euro Final? Or will it be a Euro Champ vs Copa America Champ duel?


No matter which team it is I think Spain is the favorite.

 

Spain definitely favourites in the final. It seemed lethargic from France.

 

Yikes!
Bye bye France.
Defense really is king.

 

Let's not talk crazy now.
/s

 

Spain brought their 2010 magic in 2026

 

I do not agree.

Anyways give any top team a lucky penalty and its always going to be tough to beat them. Especially a team that is the best at controlling posession.

Again I hate those kind of penalties that do not result from good play.

Would have been more interesting to see if Spain could actually go out and beat France without such a cheap gift. It was a HORRIBLE semi final match.

 

This game felt like the ultimate sucker punch. France started well enough. They were playing around Spain. I had wanted Deschamps to start Theo in Digne's place. Digne committed the foul on Yamal that swung the game in Spain's favor. Saliba going off injured was a big blow. Today felt like a case of Murphy's Law. This is hard to swallow after a tournament that had looked so promising. It just goes to show how you cannot take anything for granted at this level. One bad game and you're out.

 

I picked France but I was worried about this. Spain had the technical ability to control the game. Keep possession and when you lose possession don't have bad turn overs i.e. ones that give France a chance in the transition. I thought Spain might do this but I was very surprised how easily they did it.

 

I also picked France but I knew Spain were probably the one team capable of beating them.

 

Thanks to Spain for saving football. Old school football vs modern physicality and sports science. Spain showing that old school football is still superior if done right.

Portugal had the ability to mimic Spain and go further than they did but they chose that fraud Martinez to destroy the team with playing Cristiano for 90 minutes.

I am hoping for Spain vs England final, which would likely lead to a Spanish victory. Argentina has a stronger chance (compared to England) of defeating Spain.

But it seems at this point Spain are the favorites to win the whole thing.

Here's to a France vs Argentina 3rd place match and Spain vs England final.

 

Honestly this game was a very tactical chess match.

People are saying France played badly, but I don’t think so. They maybe weren’t at their best, but this was more of just a tactical failure by France than anything else.

Here’s the thing: Throughout this whole World Cup, France often relied on transitions, and playing through defenses with brilliant ball control and finding open spaces for teammates to catch. This works against most teams, but you can’t do this against a team that has a superior midfield to you, especially with a 4-2-3-1 attacking formation.

I will say the one weakness I did see with France in the past is for the talent they had in attack, they did have some trouble connecting passes and finding players in proper positions to finish off the attacking chances. It didn’t make a difference against most of the teams, because France would have so many chances that they’re bound to finish a few, but it’s much more of a problem against an actual talented team.

The thing is that Spain is extremely good on the ball and with possession. They have very good individual dribbling, but what Spain have that France don’t do nearly as well is structure, positioning, and chemistry all around the field. France does pass well generally, but the French team doesn’t read the game or read each other as well as Spain does which can result in more misplaced passes and turnovers. France is talented enough that it won’t show against most teams, but it will show against teams like Spain. Let’s be honest, MOST of France’s goals game from individual brilliance and sometimes counterattacks, but I haven’t seen as many goals with team build up or team play preceding it.

Anyways the real tactical mistake France did vs Spain is rely only on 2 central midfielders and stick with their attacking formation. I really thought Deschamps was going to adjust this against Spain and he didn’t. You won’t win the midfield battles in a 4-2-3-1 against a midfield of Rodri, Fabian Ruiz, and Dani Olmo. And if anything id say the midfield depth of France was likely the weak point, but Deschamps could’ve at least fielded a 3 men midfield or Tchouameni, Kone, and Zaire-Emery. In fact why did we not see Zaire-Emery at all today? I feel we should’ve.

Anyways the way to play against Spain is let them control possession but field a 3-5-2, make it very uncomfortable for them, clogg the midfield, and that will help win midfield battles and get chances on the counterattack. Like how Inter Milan beat Barcelona in the Champions League semifinal a couple seasons ago.

I think France could’ve had a good chance if Deschamps fielded: 3-5-2

GK: Magnian
CB: Upamecano
CB: Saliba
CB: Theo Hernandez
DM: Tchouameni
CM: Zaire-Emery
CM: Kone (Rabiot)
LM: Cherki
RM: Olise
ST: Mbappe
ST: Dembele

 

It will be interesting to see if Zidane will set them up better tactically against a team like Spain.

 

Here’s my full post game analysis:

France 0-2 Spain: I will say I didn’t quite expect this result, but at the same time, I also really thought Deschamps was smarter than this and wouldn’t try to play with the same formation and tactics against Spain that worked against smaller and inferior teams.

Many amateurs in soccer understanding will watch this game and say France played horribly. NO. This was actually a huge tactical chess match that was very strategic that Spain basically won which is why they won the game.

France have a few weaknesses that I did in fact overlook a bit throughout this World Cup, as I didn’t expect Spain to truly expose them very well. First of all, they have amazing attacking players who are brilliant and can create things out of nowhere like: Mbappe, Olise, Barcola, Doue, Dembele, etc. That being said, the chemistry and reading of each other in the gameplay is not the best and needs improvement. This was actually noticeable in previous games, but it just didn’t get exposed much because the quality alone created a lot of chances in themselves. The lack of being clinical and turning opportunities and chances into goals did exist in many games for France, and if you look back at stats, they should’ve won these games by a lot more goals, and didn’t because they lacked being able to be clinical; and a lot of that is due to the attacking players not reading each other well and not always knowing where they’ll be. Now France did position fairly well, and there was usually players that could receive the ball, but it was a bit all over the place, and filling in for each other, and not the most structured and organized, especially in attack.

The other weakness in France is the midfield, and more importantly Deschamps not using the best midfielders and training the midfield properly in possession. Why on earth was France playing an attacking 4-2-3-1 against a Midfield of Rodri, Fabian Ruiz, and Dani Olmo? Seriously Deschamps? You’re never going to win the midfield battles this way. I really thought we were going to see Zaire-Emery start today alongside Tchouameni, and either Kone or Rabiot. If you play a central midfield of only Tchouameni and Rabiot / Kone against a Spanish midfield of Rodri, Fabian Ruiz, and Olmo; the Spanish midfield will win the significant midfield battles every time. And this is extremely important, because whoever wins the midfield battles has more dangerous chances on goals. And Long Balls wouldn’t work either with France because Spain’s defense is very solid and has tall players that head very well.

The way France really needed to play if they wanted to beat Spain was to field a 3-5-2, and clog the midfield with 5 players to disrupt Spain’s rythemn, force more turnovers, and use Mbappe and Dembele’s pace and shooting on the counterattack. Thats the only way to properly beat a possession based team like Spain that has a very solid defense and midfield and can possess the ball very well both individually and with structure, organization, and chemistry.

All in All, Spain won because their players were better organized, structured, had better chemistry and therefore misplaced passes a lot less than France, and because France fielded a weak midfield, Spain was able to contain the French attack well and ensure they don’t get the ball enough to even create chances. Credit to Spain for discovering this and executing their tactics and game plan extremely well. Very well deserved.

Man of the Match: Pedro Porro

 

I don't think France were that lethargic; but they did look bad. I think as a team, they just had a really bad day 'reading' the game: anticipating what passes could get through & when to defend aggressively vs passively/anticipate where the ball was going - 'instincts' were not on point this game. Others have pointed out that they lost the tactical battle, I think that contributed to how they looked as well.

 

Your analysis is spot on. I had thought of the same thing myself. Most people would say that you play the same formation that you used in your previous six games. Giving Spain time and space in midfield was always going to cause problems. I had hoped we would have seen Kante at some point -- as it stands we never got to see him in this tournament. I could care less about the third place playoff match at this point. The feeling that will linger from this defeat is that we had the personnel to really make life harder for Spain. I absolutely hate it when managers overthink such huge games.

 

The only thing interesting about the third place match is whether or not Deschamps still fields Mbappe in order to give him a chance for the Golden Boot.

Depending on what happens tomorrow, Messi could be playing in that match too.

 

The Golden Boot doesn't mean much if you're not bringing home the trophy. I wouldn't be surprised if Mbappe sits that game out. He probably has his mind on going on holiday. To be honest, these guys play too many games as it is. And then Infantino wants to expand the World Cup to 64 teams in 2030!

 

FIFA expanding to 64 teams won’t add any extra games for players. Just extra games for us fans to watch, but all players will play a maximum of 8 games just like this World Cup. It’ll just be champions and runners up of groups advance and no third place advances but it’ll still be 3 group games for every team, Round of 32, Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Final

No extra games for any teams if we expand from 48 to 64 teams.

 

Spain also has the benefit of just calling up Barcelona and Real Madrid and asking... Hey what's the best way to neutralize Dembele and Mbappe. Give me more info on Tchouameni and Kounde.

In the end the Digne/ Yamal matchup was probably difficult to compensate for. On the second goal Doue just lets Pedro Porro run by like a true forward lol. Kone maybe could of went with Pedro Porro but was also ball watching.

Hats off to Spain for their style of play. Tactical mastery. Basically what Milan did to Barcelona in the 1994 champions league final. Pressed them so their elite forwards never got the ball. Desailly was in that game and as luck would have it was on my plane. Got to have a few words with him which made this game extra special.