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1 hour ago
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Key events
71 min: Deschamps gives his team the what-for. “A meeting between two of the most decorated, star-studded and talented teams in the history of sport is about to be decided by Lucas Digne and Pedro Porro,” notes Chris Paraskevas, one eyebrow hoisted high. “What a wonderful World Cup it’s been!”
69 min: … and that’s drinks. White port and tonics all round!
68 min: … Simon claims and goes long, looking for Yamal down the right. Maignan comes miles out of his box to head clear. France veering close to desperate-measures territory. “The French are being coqblocked,” quips Katerina Petta. “Spelling matters.”
67 min: … though it’s a risky tactic, and Mbappe picks up possession on the right. He cracks a low drive towards the bottom left; Cucurella deflects out for a corner, from which …
66 min: France are on the front foot at last. Spain seem happy enough to sit back, hold their shape, and wait for the hydration break.
65 min: One corner leads to another, and the second sees Tchouameni, at the near post, flick harmlessly high and wide from six yards.
64 min: Mbappe puts his head down and races past Porro on the left. He smashes a shot goalwards from a tight angle. Simon is forced to turn around for a corner. Basic but effective.
63 min: France look utterly disjointed. And now Spain have them exactly where they want them, as they pass and move in their time-honoured style. Spain have been as impressive as France have been poor.
62 min: Yamal zipped past Digne with ease, there, and didn’t have to go so early. France can consider themselves extremely lucky to still be in this semi-final!
61 min: Spain have the ball in the net for the third time. Yamal is released down the right and enters the box, dropping a shoulder before whip-curling a finish into the top left. France are saved by the offside flag.
60 min: On the touchline, Didier Deschamps looks on in open-mouthed astonishment. Hands on hips. His team were ripped apart there. So slick. And brave, too: Olmo took a whack when playing that one-two with Porro.
GOAL! France 0-2 Spain (Porro 58)
Olmo strides into space down the middle. He should release Oyarzabal with a pass down the middle but doesn’t make it. The play’s first switched to the left, then to the right for Porro, who plays a wall pass off Olmo and breaks into the box. Porro takes a couple of touches and sidefoots past Maignan and into the bottom right. What a move! What a finish! What trouble France are in now!
57 min: France have to shuffle the deck up front, and send on Doue for Barcola.
55 min: Barcola finds himself in a bit of space down the left. He’s got options in the middle, but decides to take on Porro instead. He knocks the ball past the defender, and rounds him on the outside, but he’s taken a heavy touch and Simon sorts things out. It’s just not clicking for France today.
53 min: Yamal spins the out-of-sorts Digne on the right and tears off. Barcola takes up the chase and eventually takes the ball off his man. “Òu est le Thuram de nos jours?” wonders Niall Mullen.
52 min: Oyarzabal spins into a little bit of space down the inside-left channel and, from the edge of the box, sends a rising drive over the bar. France have not flown out of the blocks in this second half. They kind of needed to.
51 min: Lacroix needlessly barges into the back of Oyarzabal, who takes the opportunity to stay down awhile. Spain already working the clock when they can. From the resulting free kick, Yamal is pinged clear down the right by Porro, but he can’t lob Maignan from a tight angle. Then the flag pops up for offside anyway.
49 min: Spain get the ball back and do it themselves. “I’m switching between TSN, FOX, and others,” begins Brian Hayden. “Every commentator and former ref has (for the first time this tournament maybe) been unanimous that it was the clearest penalty you could want, and I agree. It doesn’t matter if Yamal was trying to ‘honestly’ play the ball or if it was an accident — if you full-on kick someone high it’s a foul all day every day. It’s your responsibility to be aware of other players and not kick them four feet off the ground. It’s basically the definition of reckless.”
47 min: France start the half with a little Spanish-style patient possession. Meanwhile Simon McMahon is watching the game in Nice Old Town: “The locals were giving it laldy during the anthems, they’re a bit quieter now. I have my Scotland shirt on of course, just to make them feel a bit better about themselves.”
France get the second half started. They’ve switched out Rabiot, who was on a yellow and not treading particularly carefully, for Kone. “France were so disorganised and discombobulated after Saliba had to be substituted that I really thought Spain would score another,” writes Kári Tulinius. “As brilliant as France are, I doubt anyone could come back from 2-0 against this defence. La Furia Roja didn’t quite let themselves go wild when France were flailing around chaotically, and if Les Bleus come back, there will be regret that the Spanish didn’t push their advantage.”
Half-time postbag. “Interesting penalty takes. I think Digne is guilty of both not controlling the ball very well and being unaware of his surroundings while he flings his leg out. Two things you really don’t want to do when defending in your own box” – Sean Orlowicz
“The refereeing in this tournament hasn’t been amazing, but some of the VAR interventions (or non-interventions) have been utterly inexplicable. Can anyone state with clarity what the rules are any more? And if not, what does that mean for football as a sport at all?” – Warren Lee
“This might be the most egregious display of refereeing in the entire tournament - which is a high bar indeed. We actually now seem to have VAR correcting terrible decisions that they are not entitled to rule on, but feel they have to as the on-field decision is so bad. Really beyond dreadful” – Colin Livingstone
“Worried for France right now, at times it’s like watching the Spanish 2010 vintage” – Simon Lane
“Hungary 1954, Holland 1974, Brazil 1982 … France 2026?” – Zafar Sobhan
“My inexpert assessment: immoveable object has clamped down on irresistible force” – Dorkus McBride
HALF TIME: France 0-1 Spain
The European champions are 45 minutes plus stoppages away from their second World Cup final.
45 min +5: Olise wins a throw down the right. Cucurella contests it: despite being on a booking, he can’t help himself from telling it as he sees it. He stops just before the referee’s breaking point.
45 min +4: France pass it around the middle of the park to little effect.
45 min +2: Kunde whips a low, hard cross through the six-yard box from the right. Mbappe is this close to meeting the ball at the near post. No cigar.
45 min +1: The first of six additional first-half minutes.
45 min: Rabiot lunges in on Ruiz, and catches his foot. He’s damned fortunate not to be shown a second yellow. A fair chance he’ll not be coming out for the second half.
44 min: From the restart, Dembele runs into Ruiz and is awarded a free kick for … what, exactly? But then VAR tells the referee to overturn the decision. All very strange. It’s probably the correct ruling, but whether VAR was entitled to get involved is open to interpretation. Didier Deschamps is fuming.
43 min: Simon tries to claim the corner, and accidentally nudges his own man Oyarzabal. Meanwhile Laporte goes over clutching his head. France will be awarded a drop ball out on the left.
42 min: Barcola rolls a defence-splitter down the inside-left channel to release Mbappe. But Simon has read the danger, and races from his box to block-tackle Mbappe and clear. That had to be timed perfectly. France have to make do with a corner.
41 min: Upamecano launches long down the right, and looks to have released Mbappe, who has options in the middle. But then the flag goes up for offside. He looked on. Spain get away with one there.
39 min: Nothing comes of the corner. Spain are giving France a little bit of a chasing right now.
38 min: Maignan’s poor pass out is intercepted by Baena. Spain then work the ball across the face of the box, left to right. Olmo backflicks down the channel to release Yamal, who could shoot but squares for Ruiz instead. Ruiz tries to flip the ball into the bottom right, but it’s deflected wide. What a walk-in goal that would have been!
37 min: Now Porro has a whack from distance. It’s wild.
36 min: Barcola drops a shoulder to cut in from the left, then aims for the top right. High and wide. He should have played a reverse pass to Digne, in acres of space on the overlap. France are not thinking clearly.
35 min: France are nearly undone by a simple long punt down the middle. Simon launches, Baena gets in ahead of Upamecano and nearly rounds Maignon. Baena dinks harmlessly wide left, and then the flag goes up correctly for offside. But France are looking ragged, and need to get their act together quickly. Another Spanish goal and they’ll be in a world of pain.
34 min: Olmo skies a shot from the best part of 30 yards. Camera cables watch out! “I love Lamine Yamal, but I hate those cheap penalties,” begins Desi Duncker. “He wasn’t making a good faith effort to play the ball at all. He just saw that Digne was about to kick the ball and he launched himself into the path of his kick to draw the penalty. When Erik Lamela played for Tottenham, he got a few of those fouls. I thought it was cheap then and I think it’s cheap now. Although it complies with the letter of the law, I wish the officials had more discretion to overrule it, given Lamine Yamal’s clear intent.”
33 min: France look a little shaken at having gone behind. Olmo and Cucurella exchange passes down the left and nearly open them up. Upamecano does just about enough to bundle the ball clear.
31 min: … but the next card is earned by Cucurella, who crudely clatters into Olise twice in as many seconds. Dembele sends the resulting free kick into the hands of Simon.
30 min: Saliba, sadness etched across his face, trudges off. Lacroix comes on in his place. “France already have a booking, got away with another that could have been red, and have kicked Yamal inside the penalty box,” tick-tick-ticks Justin Kavanagh. “The tuxedos are off. Now can the Spanish matadors break out their muletas (red capes) and goad them into further transgressions to end this as a contest.”
29 min: It doesn’t look as though Saliba is able to continue.
28 min: More bad news for France as Saliba sits down, shaking his head and pointing to his back.
27 min: The game restarts.
26 min: “That was identical to the penalty Kane conceded against Mexico,” notes Phil Moseley. “Both Kane and Digne made the cardinal sin of not having eyes on the back of their heads.”
24 min: … and that’s drinks. Digne could probably do with a pint of that pastis liqueur right now.
23 min: France are now behind for the first time at this World Cup.
GOAL! France 0-1 Spain (Oyarzabal 22 pen)
Oyarzabal lashes the spot kick towards the right-hand side of the net, halfway up, and though Maignan guesses correctly, the keeper has no chance! What a penalty under pressure!
21 min: Digne isn’t arguing, but Mbappe is. He claims the ball skimmed Yamal’s arm. But it’s on the sleeve. This won’t be overturned.
Penalty for Spain!
20 min: Digne misjudges a clearing header, the ball skimming off the top of his head. He spins around to hook clear, without realising Yamal was nipping in behind him. He catches Yamal with his boot, and the referee immediately points to the spot. Digne has the good grace to look utterly gutted.
