Not many football (or soccer if you read from the US) fans thought in early June that Spain would have been gone through to SFs. All the chatter was about France, England, Germany, Portugal or even the Netherlands. Spain has a young team, not much international experience and without a star such as Mbappé, Cristiano or Bellingham.

However, with the help of Rodri and Fabian as midfielders, backed by Cucurella, Carvajal, Laporte and Simon among others, two youngsters such as Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal have made a difference. They give a completely different set of options to the Spanish side, that in the last few years have been abusing of excessive amount of “passes completed” and possession without finalizing in a shot. They play faster, always trying to create problems to the opponent´s defense.

Tonight, they play against France. Tough team. Apart from having great players, such as Mbappé, Dembelé or Griezmann, they are a very physical team. During the last match, in QFs against Portugal, you could see them running after the ball and pressing right up to the very last minutes of the extra time. Spain had several problems by the end of the match. In addition, Maignan is helping them making incredible saves, which adds more strength to their defensive approach.

It is going to be a difficult match for both teams. Last time we play, officially, was at the Nations League final in 2021. France beat Spain 1-0. We will see this time.

We are running a bounty #599704 for the semi-finals and is still open for submissions until 17:00h CET today.

Enjoy the match!