The Spanish national team is the first finalist in this year’s edition of the European Football Championship. Luis de la Fuente’s team deserved the opportunity to fight for the football crown of the Old Continent, defeating France 2-1 in an interesting semi-final clash played in front of the full stands of the Allianz Arena in Munich.
The clash offered its memorable moments, the first of which was the complete turnaround that took place. France took the lead in the eighth minute when Kolo Muani scored with a header after an excellent cross from Mbappé. The Spaniards needed less than a quarter of an hour to regain their familiar rhythm and in about four minutes achieved the decisive turnaround. The tone was set by 16-year-old Lamine Yamal, who with a unique goal also made his name as the youngest goalscorer in the history of the European Championship. Shortly after, the magic of Dani Olmo also appeared again, who matted the “Roosters” with an uncompromising diagonal shot.
After the break, France did not create a clean situation through which to claim that the duel should at least continue beyond 90 minutes. Thus, Spain heads to Berlin, where they will wait for the grand final for one of the Netherlands or England.
Spain wanted to be the team with priority control over the ball, and La Roja’s plan worked from the first whistle of Slavko Vinčić. 180 seconds later, the symbolic hosts even created a scoring opportunity, but a cross from Fabian Ruiz to the far post did not find its addressee.
After trying from the right shortly before, the Spaniards decided to exploit the left wing as well, where Lamine Yamal easily reached the point of crossing to his colleague Ruiz. He finished the offensive action with a header shot, but his aim went over the top bar.
And while “La Furia” seemed much closer to the opening goal, suddenly the goal fell into their net. In the eighth minute, France took the lead with their first real attack in the semi-final, and the scorer of the headed goal was Randal Kolo Muani. It all started with a pass to Kylian Mbappé, who was given the necessary time by Jesús Navas to deliver a perfect cross, which his colleague in attack capitalized on to the fullest, standing right in the free space between Laporte and Cucurella.
The goal inspired additional confidence in “Les Bleus”, who seriously worried the Spaniards in the 18th minute. Without a mask on his face, Kylian Mbappé demonstrated that he is a completely different footballer and after a few sharp changes of direction, the star freed himself up for a shot, which thankfully for Unai Simón, deflected off a defender’s body.
The new great talent of world football – Lamine Yamal, created a true masterpiece in the 21st minute, when he helped his homeland to restore parity. No. 19 received the ball near the edge of the penalty area and needed a few more technical touches to unleash such a precise shot that even the fully stretched Mike Maignan could only watch as it deflected off the post and into his net.
“Les Bleus” were in a total knockout, after just a few minutes from leaders in the score, Deschamps’ men suddenly found themselves in the role of catch-up. Even more disappointing is that this happened after an unfortunate own goal by Jules Koundé. It came about when a cross from Navas in the 24th minute was not cleared in the best way by the French defense. It reached the feet of Dani Olmo, who with a single body movement freed himself from two players in “white” and sent a diagonal shot that went under Maignan’s dive. The ball was flying towards the net, but in its path stood Koundé, who however did nothing but “steal” the goal from Olmo and disappoint his compatriots to the max.
* Later, UEFA announced that the goal was still recorded in the name of Dani Olmo, as his shot was within the frame of the goal.
In the following minutes, both teams decided to slow down the pace of the game a little, which at this point completely suited the Spaniards. The French tried to show activity mainly through Mbappé and Dembélé, but without any particular success.
The second half was a time for action from the French. We saw some rather timid attempts from them in the 52nd minute. Then Aurélien Tchouaméni jumped highest on a corner kick, but his header went into the safe hands of Unai Simón.
France organized a good attack on the flank, which was intensified after a pass from Kanté to Dembélé. The PSG player sent a cross into the penalty area, which slightly surprised Unai Simón and the Basque goalkeeper had to make a save with one hand.
After a quarter of an hour into the second half, Didier Deschamps decided to bring on more attacking players like Griezmann and Coman. All this put Mbappé at the forefront of the French attack, but it couldn’t be said that this increased the danger to Simón’s goal.
The Spaniards seemed susceptible to pressure after a simple cross in the 75th minute caused incredible confusion in the ranks of “La Roja”. Thus, the ball was cleared right into the feet of Theo Hernandez, who, however, shot over the bar from a comfortable position.
Lamine Yamal tried to recreate his goal from the first half, when in the 81st minute he again did everything necessary to free himself and shoot. However, the perfectly curled ball lacked just a little more precision.
Kylian Mbappé had his moment in the 85th minute when his breakthrough through Nacho’s zone was successful. In the sublime moment, the star failed, sending his powerful shot high out for a throw-in.
By the end, the French didn’t even create anything close to final pressure, and Spain simply waited for the final whistle of Slavko Vinčić to celebrate! On Sunday evening, at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, De la Fuente’s men will face the survivor of the other semi-final pair, Netherlands or England.
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