Didier Deschamps predicts that France’s World Cup semi-final against European champions Spain will be a “spectacular game” for everyone to watch. 

Dallas Stadium is the venue for the blockbuster encounter between two of international football’s elite teams, though only one will advance to Sunday’s World Cup final. 

France have been the standout team in North America, breezing through their group games before comfortably beating Sweden for a spot in the last 16. 

They needed a Kylian Mbappe penalty to make their way past a stubborn Paraguay side, before winning against Morocco in a World Cup reunion to reach the semi-finals.

Spain await them in the final four, and Luis de la Fuente’s side have grown into the tournament, though they have needed two late interventions to reach this stage. 

Mikel Merino struck the winning goal against both Portugal and Belgium, setting up just the second ever World Cup meeting between France and Spain, following their last 16 meeting back in 2006, which Les Bleus won 3-1. 

France are looking to become only the third team in World Cup history to reach three consecutive finals, along with Germany in 1982, 1986 and 1990 and Brazil in 1994, 1998 and 2002, but Deschamps acknowledged the test that awaits hs side. 

“They have only conceded one goal in six games,” Deschamps told reporters. “We know this could be a most spectacular game.

“[Spain boss] Luis [de la Fuente] and myself know how to defend and, with the quality of the two teams offensively, we can think it’s going to be a spectacular game.”

The Opta supercomputer has assigned France a 43.1% chance of victory to Spain’s 29.7% win probability, though Deschamps believes La Roja are the favourites to progress. 

“If you see what Spain did in their first match, forget about that, but in the rest, Spain confirmed they are the favourite,” Deschamps added. 

𝐋’𝐇𝐄𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐃𝐔 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐄-𝐀̀-𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐄 !

Notre parcours continue. Ensemble, allons décrocher cette place en finale de la Coupe du monde

, 21h00 sur M6 & beIN SPORTS 1 #FRAESP | #FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/3LUnv57Vic

— Equipe de France (@equipedefrance) July 14, 2026

Deschamps could be right in his prediction, given Spain lost just two of their last 10 meetings with France in all competitions (W7 D1), winning each of the last two (2-1 in the semi-final at Euro 2024 and 5-4 in the Nations League in June 2025).

However, France have a star-studded attack at their disposal, with Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele and Michael Olise all playing their part in their team’s run to the semi-finals.

Mbappe, who is level with Lionel Messi on eight goals in the race for the Golden Boot, has scored 12 goals in the knockout stages of the World Cup, the most of any player.

He has scored in the round of 32 (two), round of 16 (five), quarter-final (one) and final (four) but never in the semi-final in two appearances, and he did not complete Monday’s final training session ahead of taking on France. 

But Deschamps said there was no cause for concern, telling reporters: “Kylian is fine. 

Asked if Mbappe had ​trained, he added: “Yes, ​he ⁠trained. He is allowed to do 10 minutes ⁠in ​one drill ​instead of 15.”