Spain vs France: the battle of the heavyweights

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Spain and France head to Munich to stake claim for a spot in the final of the 2024 European Championships. With just one game seperating both sides and a seat at this event’s final stage.

Both sides have had quite contrasting fortunes at the tournament so far.

READ ALSO:

• Maresca provides injury update on James as Chelsea captain misses Leicester trip
• Tottenham appeal Bentancur’s seven-game suspension
• Nigeria draw Benin as they qualify for 2025 AFCON with a game to spare
• Benin vs Nigeria: Preview, H2H, Team News, Prediction of AFCON 2025 qualifier
• Federico Chiesa’s unpleasant start to life at Liverpool worrisome, raises concerns

France came into the tourney as one of the favourites but have however taken a quite unfamiliar route to the final.

Les Blèus are yet to record a goal from open play this tournament — the goals accumulated by the team have been courtsey of two own goals and a Kylian Mbappé penalty.

The French skipper himself making that strike his first ever goal in the European Championships and despite 20 shots to his name, he’s yet to eclipse the one goal tally. 

In solidarity however, the defensive exploits of the team has however been on the front foot getting the team all the way to this stage.

Didier Deschamps side progressed to this stage by defeating a Cristiano Ronaldo led Portugal in the last phase via penalties.

On the contrary, Luis de la Fuente’s Spain have had the best start to this tournament going all the way in all of their five games in the tournament so far.

While no team has won more than 6 games across a single tournament or 6 consecutive games in a row, Spain look headed to take this feat.

Team news

Dani Carvajal his suspended for the game having picked up a second booking deep into the tie against Germany in a bid to stop Jamal Musiala.

Toni Kroos’ challenge on Pedri spells the Barcelona midfielder will miss the rest of the tournament. Robin Le Normand also joins in the absentee list having picked up an injury of his own.

The French team have a relatively strong contingent to pick from and the biggest question is how Didier Deschamps will choose to field his XI on the day.

Eduardo Camavinga came into the first team against Germany to shore up the midfield against Portugal. 

With the bolstering attacking options on offer, it’s left to see if Ousmane Dembélé’s cameo off the bench will be enough to earn him a spot from the start.

Predicted XI

Spain – Unai Simon; Marc Cucurella, Aymeric Laporte, Nacho Fernandez, Jesus Navas; Rodri, Fabian Ruiz, Dani Olmo; Nico Williams, Álvaro Morata, Lamine Yamal (4-2-1-3)

France – Mike Maignan; Theo Hernandez, William Saliba, Dayot Upamecano, Jules Kounde; Adrien Rabiot, Aurélien Tchouaméni, N’golo Kanté; Antoine Griezmann; Kylian Mbappé, Randal Kolo Muani (4-3-1-2)

Tags: France, Spain, #Euro2024, Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo, Kylian Mbappé, #Euros, La Furia Roja, Les Blèus, N’golo Kanté