France and Spain: two international powerhouses with rich histories and bright futures. But how have the two countries matched up against each other in major tournaments throughout the years?<\/p>\n
Let’s look back at the most notable meetings between France and Spain ahead of their 2026 FIFA World Cup semifinal match at Dallas Stadium on Tuesday:\u00a0<\/p>\n
(Photo by Alex Livesey\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Spain’s Goalscorers:<\/strong> Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo The most recent meeting between France and Spain was in 2024, again in a semifinal, but in the European Championship.<\/p>\n A majority of the players from both squads are involved again this time. Sixteen members of Spain\u2019s current World Cup squad were in the Euro 2024 squad that won the tournament, while 15 France players from Euro 2024 are also in this World Cup squad.<\/p>\n Spain came into that Euro 2024 semifinal flying, having a marvelous tournament up to that point. La Roja went perfect in the group stage, winning all three matches, then beat Georgia comfortably in the round of 16 before knocking out host nation Germany in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n France, meanwhile, had a relatively poor start to the tournament. Les Bleus failed to win their group, managing five points in the group stage, before lackluster knockout wins over Belgium and Portugal. France beat Belgium, 1-0, in the round of 16, then defeated Portugal on penalties after a 0-0 draw in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n Spain came in with the momentum, but an early goal from Kolo Muani stirred the pot. Then a moment of magic from Lamine Yamal, a long-distance pearler, and a goal from Dani Olmo off a Jules Kound\u00e9 deflection gave Spain a 2-1 lead going into halftime.<\/p>\n Spain managed to hang on, winning the semifinal before going on to win the entire tournament by beating England in the final.<\/p>\n (Photo by Alex Livesey\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n France’s Goalscorers:<\/strong> Franck Rib\u00e9ry, Patrick Vieira, Zinedine Zidane This was a dramatic round of 16 matchup in 2006 because France failed to win its group, finishing below Switzerland, which led to Les Bleus facing a Spain side that had won its group in dominant fashion.<\/p>\n But Spain\u2019s reward was having to face a France team in the last 16 that still had Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, Lilian Thuram, Franck Rib\u00e9ry and many more.<\/p>\n Those talented players got the better of a Spain team that started strong and took the initial lead through a David Villa penalty. But an equalizer from Rib\u00e9ry shortly before halftime, a late goal from Vieira on a set piece and a stoppage-time insurance goal from Zidane allowed France to get past Spain.<\/p>\n It was a tough break for a Spanish team that won its group but was rewarded with a France team that ended up going all the way to the World Cup final.<\/p>\n (Photo by OLIVIER MORIN\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n France’s Goalscorers:<\/strong> Youri Djorkaeff This was Spain and France\u2019s second group-stage match of Euro 1996, played at Elland Road in Leeds, home of Leeds United.<\/p>\n It ended in a 1-1 draw behind goals from Djorkaeff and Jos\u00e9 Luis Caminero and proved to be a pivotal point for both teams in their push to move on to the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n It was a tight battle between France, Spain and Bulgaria for the top two spots. France topped the group with seven points, Spain finished second with five, and Bulgaria narrowly missed out with four.<\/p>\n (Photo by AFP) (Photo by -\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY France and Spain: two international powerhouses with rich histories and bright futures. But how have the two countries matched up against each other in major tournaments throughout the years? Let’s look back at the most notable meetings between France and Spain ahead of their 2026 FIFA World Cup semifinal match at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
France’s Goalscorers:<\/strong> Randal Kolo Muani<\/p>\n
Spain’s Goalscorers:<\/strong> David Villa<\/p>\n
Spain’s Goalscorers:<\/strong> Jos\u00e9 Luis Caminero<\/p>\n