Spain suffocated France deep in the heart of Texas on Tuesday, powering into their first World Cup final since lifting the trophy in 2010 with an utterly dominant 2-0 victory that left the tournament’s most feared attack gasping for air.
From the opening whistle, the Spaniards wrapped themselves around France like an anaconda, tightening their grip with every wave of pressing and every spell of possession until the life had been squeezed from a French strike force that had looked irresistible throughout the tournament.
Mikel Oyarzabal and Pedro Porro supplied the goals, but the scoreline barely reflected Spain’s authority as the European champions monopolised possession, dictated the tempo and denied France’s vaunted forward line any platform from which to attack.
“A dream come true … to be honest, I never even imagined anything like this, not even in my wildest dreams,” Porro said. “We did everything right against a team that was having a brilliant World Cup.”
Spain are now within one victory of completing a World Cup-European Championship double.
They will discover their final opponents on Wednesday when England face Argentina in Atlanta for a place in Sunday’s showpiece.
France, meanwhile, were left to contemplate the bleak consolation of a third-place playoff after their Bastille Day hopes were comprehensively extinguished.
“The players are devastated, but we have to be clear-headed: technically, we were second best,” coach Didier Deschamps said. “That is on us.
“We lacked technical precision and energy. The Spanish are very good at breaking up moves by reading interceptions and passes. We would have liked to cause them more problems going forward.”
For a country that waited generations for its first World Cup, a second title 16 years later would herald the arrival of another Spanish golden era, this one inspired by Lamine Yamal but driven by one of the most complete collective teams in international football.