News: The One No One Can Afford - 2026 World Cup Thread [R]

TV commentators in UK speculating on who Kone comes on to replace with the feeling being that Tchoua has been poor and Rabiot on a yellow card "plus" so one has to be replaced.

Also feeling that Rodri and Ruiz are dominating the midfield battle, so Deschamps has to change.

Is fine margins, but France need to change something or they are going home.

 

Penalty Yes or No ? https://t.co/auq9RlIMGy https://t.co/H17DUeWaf6

— Manchester United Die Hard Fans (@DieHardUtdFans) July 14, 2026

 

France need Giroud ala in the mix now, mbappe won't win the headers.

 

2-0 Spain

 

3-0 Yamal...

Edit: offside

 

Tchoumeni forward passes are bang average.

 

Anyone having second guess on Kone? Doue with plenty of time to shoot open net..fluffed .

 

France looked a team all tournament until today.

Some of this is down to Spain defending and midfield, some down to Deschamps changing the team today while Spain were unchanged.

Broke the momentum by overthinking it.

Spain easy winners and will likely beat whoever makes the final.

 

Brilliant performance by Spain. Totally bossed it. It may not look exciting but really it was total controlled masterclass of football.

 

France were never goal down throughout the tournament and once Spain won the penalty and went 1-0, they were chasing ducks. Spain ran them around like headless chickens and all front players waited for the final ball instead of dropping deep to get it and even when they had ball they played safe sideways backwards football instead of dribbling and beating defenders.

For me penalty still loon dubious

2077123559047012791 is not a valid tweet id

 

Someone mentioned England IIRC.

 

@JamesA the closest. Hardly anyone voted

 

Close but not quite. France so poor today.

Can't remember who, but I had a debate in the OTT about Spain. Someone couldn't understand why anyone would rate them or pick them to win it.

They thought it a markedly worst squad than 2 years ago which was a surprising comment to me.

 

Glad he signed extension at Madrid, been saying throughout tournament. He is neither great defensively or offensively.

Look at Tchouaméni man. A quick pass to Olise and France are through, but his decision-making is just way too slow man😭 pic.twitter.com/D3X4lurCvb

— Kobi (@UTDKobi) July 14, 2026

France miss and have missed a player like Paul Pogba in the midfield. pic.twitter.com/IfF6Fesh9x

— 10 (@Kylian) July 14, 2026

 

France midfield was bad, but was setup by Deschamps to fail.

Spain had Olmo and Oyarzabal drop so was often France 2 vs Spain 4 in the middle of the pitch and even when Olise dropped was still 3 v 4.

France should have had Tchouameni as a #6 (more his gig) behind a pair of #8s as a minimum, instead a pair of conventional pivots against a typically Spanish overloaded midfield was always going to fail.

Has been a Spanish tactic for ages, Barca do this too all the time going back decades eg did it against us under SAF back in the day.

Deschamps was typically stubborn and refused to adjust for the opponent.

Expect Zidane to do a better job with this group of players as he knows how the Spanish play

 

Yeah Deschamp setup was poor but with little ball opportunities he had he failed. It's been the case throughout WC not just semifinal.

 

Yes

I am totally caught off guard, but i guess this is tournament play. Play 1 good team in 8 matches and you're in a final.

Also people that have been paying attention, Spain generally owns France. Especially lately. The surprise is how useless Spain made them look.

That penalty ruined the game as well.

Think England can beat Spain. Think Spain will murder Argentina with Messi walking on the field not defending. 11 players cant get the ball, can't see it

 

Spain nullified them. It was like an adult using one hand to hold a kids to arms together ans using his free hand to beat the shit out of the kid.

High line, counter pressing winning 2nd balls despite being physically outmatched.

 

On paper I still stand on this. But there's a lot yo be said about coaching, chemistry and timing.

I'd have never thought Olise and Barcola would be shut down by Cucarella and Porro.