Didier Deschamps insisted that Spain are the favourites in the World Cup 2026 semi-final against his France team as he predicted a spectacular game in Dallas.
France top the world rankings and have often been described as the best team in the tournament so far but Spain won Euro 2024, beating France in the semi-finals, and again defeated Deschamps’ side in last year’s Nations League.
And Deschamps, who has spent the World Cup claiming that Spain are the likeliest winners, maintained his position, even though France have scored five more goals and won all of their games.
He explained: “If you see what Spain have done in the first match against Cape Verde [a 0-0 draw], forget about that, but in the rest Spain confirmed they are the favourite. I don’t want to add extra pressure to Luis [de la Fuente, the manager] and their team, he knows very well people are expecting greatly of their team.
“They can attack and defend very well, they only conceded one goal. Luis and myself, we know how to defend well but with the quality of the two teams offensively we could think it is going to be a spectacular game.”
Kylian Mbappe had come off in the quarter-final win over Morocco and put ice on his ankle but said after the match that he was fine.
And Deschamps had no concerns about his captain, who has scored eight goals in this World Cup. “He trained today,” he said.
But the France manager has a selection decision in midfield where Aurelien Tchouameni is fit again after a groin problem. The Real Madrid player was named as a substitute against Morocco but Deschamps decided it would be too great a gamble to play him then.
“He is now available,” said Deschamps. “Even though he was on the bench for the last game, the risk was high. He is better today, I am not going to say he has been 100 percent cured. The last game he played was two weeks ago but it does not mean anything.”
