Cover photo taken from ESPN.
Some collision courses are inevitable. France and Spain have been on an extended one for years now.
It started with Les Bleus’ 2-1 victory in the 2021 Nations League Final before Spain returned the favor with the same scoreline in the 2024 Euro semifinal. Things boiled over a touch in the final of last year’s Nations League tournament with a wacky 5-4 Spanish victory. And coming into the 2026 FIFA World Cup, many a prognosticator predicted that these same two footballing titans would clash once again in the knockout rounds.
Well, here we are.
It’s honestly a shame that the bracket seeding prevented this from being the final, because it feels like that’s what this should be. That’s nothing against the four brilliant squads on the other side of the bracket — England, Norway and especially Argentina can definitely find themselves lifting the trophy in nine days’ time. But coming into this tournament, France and Spain were undoubtedly the co-favorites to bring glory home.
Now, only one can reach that final stage.
The French have arrived at this juncture by following their tried and true formula: keep playing it forward, and the goals will come. 22 shots and nine shots on target embodied that in their 2-0 quarterfinal win over Morocco. Despite missing a first-half penalty, Kylian Mbappe curled a peach of a strike into the far corner to thrust France ahead before Ousmane Dembele provided the dagger with a perfectly-placed roller into the bottom right. That gave the all-world duo eight and five goals, respectively, at this tournament, becoming the first tandem to reach such a figure since Ronaldo and Rivaldo did it for Brazil in 2002. And when you add Michael Olise to the mix, the trio’s 23 goal involvements top that of those two and Ronaldinho 24 years ago. Oh, and that pushed the French scoring total to 16 in six games with just two being conceded. Pretty, pretty good.
Mbappe having 20 World Cup goals in as many appearances is asinine no matter how you slice it. He is likely the best World Cup performer we’ve ever seen, shining blindingly bright in just his third appearance on the ultimate global stage. Only a higher power knows what that total will be 10 years from now.
Spain once again needed some late-match heroics to pull past an opponent they could’ve and should’ve beaten more soundly, but they’ll take the result no matter what. Friday’s 2-1 win over Belgium featured their first goal conceded at the tournament, but it really never felt like the Spanish were going to lose. They won the xG battle 2.04 to 0.36, had 17 shots and eight shots on target and dominated possession with 68%.
But this reinforces the common issue that Spain have had at this tournament: it just doesn’t look like they’ve put it together yet. They’re getting by because they’re so dang good, but we just need more out of that attack. They don’t lack for chances, but the finishing needs to improve to keep up with a squad like France.
Maybe Lamine Yamal can finally catch his stride. It’s been a very lackluster summer for the player many hail as the best in the world. If he wants to retain that title, or perhaps snatch it back from Mbappe, he’ll need a signature performance on Tuesday afternoon. It’s not that he’s been bad — he’s actually won several Man of the Match awards and his impact on the game can’t be understated — but the production simply hasn’t been there. The good news for him is that he’s undefeated against Mbappe in single-elimination knockout games across club and country. The bad news is that this will be far tougher than all of those matchups.
In any case, the reality is that these squads are going to provide us with what might just be the true climax of a World Cup that has surpassed all the hype. And that’s what we as the fans deserve. I have no doubt that Norway-England will be a tremendous game, and the subsequent semifinal and eventual final will be the same level of theater that the rest of the tournament has given us.
But it’s the collision course that catches our gaze. And this is the one we’ve been waiting for this whole time.
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