On Tuesday in Dallas, the Spanish national football team disrupted the powerful attacking force of their French counterparts and defeated them 2-0 with a complete team performance, reaching the 2026 World Cup final for the second time in their history and denying their opponent a third consecutive appearance. 'La Roja', champions in 2010, dominated the match from start to finish, turning France, which had terrified opponents with a lethal attacking trio, into an ordinary team. In chess-like fashion, Spain prevailed: patience, no rushing, occupying spaces, luring the opponent, tactical superiority, reading the opponent's movements, minimizing errors, and a knockout blow at the right time. In the intense heat of nearly 30 degrees Celsius in Texas and in front of 70,000 spectators, 19-year-old Lamine Yamal devoured left-back Lucas Digne and won a penalty on the vulnerable right flank, which Mikel Oyarzabal converted in the 22nd minute, bringing his tally to five goals in the tournament. Eight minutes later, the second blow for France, champions of 1998 and 2018 and runners-up in 2022: center-back William Saliba went off injured. The script seemed written; France coach Didier Deschamps moved playmaker Michael Olise from Rodri's midfield clamp to the right flank, but Spain, with unscripted play, caught Kylian Mbappé offside several times, stalling the engines of the tournament's current top scorer with eight goals and 20 World Cup goals. Deschamps' words acknowledged Spain's overwhelming superiority: 'We admit we were inferior technically to a team that controlled the game better.' The coach, who will play the third-place match on Saturday against the loser of Argentina-England, his last after 14 successful years, paving the way for Zinedine Zidane: 'We sorely lacked attacking edge. We went from an offensive festival to near nothing tonight. That happened because the opponent prevented us from playing, because our technical precision was lower, and perhaps because some players lacked energy.' In contrast, Spain produced a stunning tactical display without showboating. Give and go between Dani Olmo and Pedro Porro planted the ball in Mike Maignan's net in the 58th minute. Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said: 'We faced one of the best teams in the world, but they found the best team in the world. That is different. These players deserve everything; they have shown day after day their commitment, solidarity, and talent. They make the difficult look easy.' Spain have not lost any of their last 37 matches in all competitions (28 wins, 9 draws), equaling the longest unbeaten run by a European team in history, set by Italy between 2018 and 2021. France had won in the knockout stages against Sweden 3-0, Paraguay 1-0, and Morocco 2-0, while Spain beat Austria 3-0, Portugal 1-0, and Belgium 2-1 when they conceded their only goal. From a distance, former France midfielder Patrick Vieira's words were telling and harsh: 'Expectations were high that France would win the World Cup. We are very disappointed by the result, but even more by the performance, because we needed our big players to step up today, but they didn't. It wasn't just one or two players underperforming; it was all of them.' Spain cemented their recent dominance over France, after beating them 2-1 in the Euro 2024 semifinal (where they won the title) and 5-4 in the 2025 Nations League semifinal. They became the first team in World Cup history to keep a clean sheet in six matches of a single edition.