France 0-2 Spain: FIFA World Cup Semi-Final Match Report

France 0-2 Spain, and the most one-sided of the two semi-finals. Spain led at the break and doubled it after it, and the shape of the scoreline — ahead early enough to control, ahead by two late enough to close it out — describes a night when the tournament's most disciplined side did to France exactly what it had done to everyone else.

The first goal before half-time was the pivot. Spain had reached the semi-final having conceded once in five knockout and group matches combined, and a Spain side in front is a Spain side playing the game it prefers: compact, patient, willing to let an opponent hold the ball in areas where holding it achieves nothing. France, needing to chase, were pushed into precisely the situation their tournament had not yet required of them.

The second goal removed the last question. France arrived at this semi-final having scored ten goals in the group stage and conceded two, then having won 1-0 and 2-0 in the knockout rounds. Being kept off the scoresheet entirely, for the first time all tournament, is the single most striking fact of the ninety minutes.

France had been imperious. Nine points from the group — 3-1 against Senegal, 3-0 against Iraq, 4-1 against Norway — with ten goals scored and two conceded, the best attacking return of the first phase. The knockout rounds tightened them up rather than exposing them: 3-0 against Sweden in the Round of 32, 1-0 against Paraguay in the Round of 16, 2-0 against Morocco in the quarter-final. Six matches, no defeats, and only Norway had scored more than once against them.

Spain's route was quieter and, in the end, harder to play against. Seven points from a group containing a goalless draw with Cape Verde, a 4-0 win over Saudi Arabia and a 1-0 against Uruguay. Then 3-0 against Austria, 1-0 against Portugal, and a 2-1 against Belgium in the quarter-final that remains the only knockout match in which they conceded.

The contrast set the semi-final up neatly: the tournament's most productive attack against its most miserly defence. The defence won, and won without needing a late goal or a shoot-out to do it.

It put Spain into the final without their defensive record being meaningfully dented, and it did so against the one team whose attacking numbers suggested they might dent it. Beating France 2-0 while keeping a clean sheet is the performance that made Spain favourites for the final, and it was the closest thing the tournament produced to a statement.

For France it ended a campaign that had gone almost perfectly to that point. Ten group-stage goals, three knockout wins, no defeat until the semi-final — and then a night when nothing worked. They would go on to the third-place play-off and a 6-4 defeat to England, a scoreline that suggests a squad which had emptied itself in this fixture.

The broader point is about how this World Cup was won. Two of the four semi-finalists — Spain and Argentina — reached the final having built their runs on defensive control and single-goal margins respectively. France's method, the most attractive of the tournament, met the method that beat it.