Spain eliminates France with style to seal its spot in the World Cup final

There's no intent here, Digne is looking for the ball, not the man, and he simply doesn't see Spain attacker Lamine Yamal charging in behind him. But that's exactly the problem. Digne needs to have his head on a swivel in this situation to avoid giving away the exact penalty he did. Intent doesn't matter: He kicked Yamal in the box, and that's a penalty 100% of the time.

In the second half, France made the same mistake again. Its defensive line watched Porro pass the ball to his teammate Dani Olmo, and quickly decided that Olmo, not Porro, was the real trouble here:

France's defenders converged upon Olmo because he had the ball ... but Olmo, seeing Porro wide open on the flank, counted to three and poked the ball back out to his teammate instead. Porro was entirely unmarked and only had to beat France's goalkeeper to double Spain's lead. Once again, France watched the ball instead of the runners, and once againl, Spain took full advantage. 

Spain's defense is better than you think

We don't celebrate Spain as a defensive unit very often, but consider this: in its seven World Cup games this summer, la furia roja has conceded just one goal (to Charles De Ketelaere of Belgium, the same man who took down the U.S. Men's National Team in the Round of 16). That means it's kept a whopping six clean sheets in the tournament, and it's done so while keeping shots to a minimum, too. Spanish goalkeeper Unai Simon has made just 10 saves in the tournament so far, putting him in 42nd place of the 48 starting goalkeepers. He's not playing out of his skin here: The defensive line in front of him is.

Some of this comes down to the center back pairing of Pau Cubarsi and Aymeric Laporte, both of whom have been spectacular in their roles. (Cubarsi is still just 19 years old — keep an eye on him over the next few years.) But lots of it comes down to defensive midfielder Rodri, too. When he won the 2024 Ballon D'Or over the likes of attackers like Vini Jr., plenty of people cried foul, but this match proved that he's every bit as valuable to a team as a traditional goalscorer would be. He didn't put a foot wrong all night and he reduced France's famous attack to impotence.

There's a big record on the line in the World Cup final

Spain's victory in this match was its 37th consecutive undefeated match in international competition. It hasn't lost a game in regular time since it fell 0-1 to Colombia in a friendly in March of 2024. That puts it just one game away from breaking the all-time international undefeated record that Italy set between 2018-2021: If it wins the World Cup final or takes it to extra time, it will surpass Italy's near-impossible feat. You wouldn't bet against Spain after seeing it take down France in the manner that it did.

Spain will contest the World Cup final against either Argentina or England on Sunday, July 19 in East Rutherford, New Jersey.