The first of the two semi-finals sees the runners-up at the last World Cup, France, up against the European champions, Spain. These are two extremely well-matched teams who have been among the favourites since the very start.
Here’s what you need to know ahead of the game, including team news, the head-to-head record between the two and of course, another betting tip coming your way.
France - Spain: Mbappe to Score, but Will It Be Enough?
- Key Stat: Things have been pretty even between these two over the years. They’ve played each other 16 times in total, with eight wins for Spain, six for France and two draws. None of the last six between them has ended in a draw, with Spain having the upper hand of late, with four wins across those last six.
- Best Bet: Back Kylian Mbappe to score anytime
- Odds: 2.0 (at the time of writing)
Calling the match-winner market is easier said than done between two such evenly matched teams, but this has been a fixture with plenty of goals.
Sure, we’re unlikely to have a repeat of that 5-4 score from a year ago, but you’d expect there to be at least three goals in it, and if that’s the case, we’d be surprised if Mbappe wasn’t among the goal scorers once more.
He’s on eight goals for the tournament already, including scoring in each of his last three, has 56 goals from 58 matches this season and scored in two of his last three matches against Spain, so it would be no surprise if he came up with the goods once again.
France
France has been the most impressive side so far this tournament. On Thursday, they beat a resilient Morocco side 2-0, and it was once again Kylian Mbappe getting them on their way with a brilliant finish to take his tally for the tournament to eight. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that he earlier missed a penalty with a tame shot that was easily saved.
And after Mbappe’s strike on 60 minutes, the second came just six minutes later with Ousmane Dembele giving France some breathing space, and that was that.
Skipper Mbappe came off after 77 minutes with what appeared to be a hamstring strain, but by then the damage had been done to Morocco, and the Real Madrid man should be fine to play here, which is a big positive as they’ll certainly need him on the pitch and at his best.
But if their famed front four has been doing the business at one end of the pitch, the defence has certainly been doing their bit at the other. While England and Argentina have been conceding plenty of goals, France has kept clean sheets in all three of their knockout matches, and that may prove just as valuable as all the goals they’ve been scoring.
- Player to watch: Kylian Mbappe: 2.0 to score / 6.0 to score 2 or more goals.
Spain
Spain may have conceded one against Belgium on Friday night, but they’re now on an amazing run of 37 competitive games without tasting defeat; if they avoid defeat here, it will set a new world record.
They weren’t quite at their best against Belgium, but got the job done in the end and have found something of an unlikely hero in Mikel Merino.
The Arsenal man was meant to be in the side as a central midfielder to provide cover for Pedri and Rodri, but for the second match in a row, he popped up with the winner and may be in contention to start here, but then again, they may prefer to unleash him off the bench yet again.
We’ve been saying this for a while now, but Lamine Yamal hasn’t really got going yet and has scored just once so far, against Saudi Arabia, which is a poor return by his standards.
After a strong start to the tournament, Mikel Oyarzabal has gone off the boil a bit, failing to find the net in either of his last two games. They may consider playing Merino as a central striker, but the most likely scenario is that the Real Sociedad man starts here again.
- Player to watch: Lamine Yamal: 3.3 to score anytime / 2.25 to score or assist
Did You Know?
Yamal may not be at his best right now, but he has good memories of this fixture. A year ago, Spain beat France 5-4 in a Nations League match, and Yamal scored two in it, one of them a penalty. Merino also scored in that game, as did, somewhat inevitably, Mbappe, also a penalty.
