“This will be spectacular” Didier Deschamps ahead of semi final | OneFootball

The headline side of this World Cup, it has seemed to many for a while now, that a French World Cup triumph is inevitable, their attack is too relentless, and their depth is too great for any side to ever deal with. They have so far proved that to be the case and now sit on the verge of an incredible third successive World Cup final.

Didier Deschamps will step down from his role as France head coach following this tournament, bringing an end to a 14-year spell in charge that has seen him return France to the top of the world. It will be an emotional goodbye, but there is still plenty of fire in the 57-year-old as he spoke ahead of this monumental tie.

”With the quality of the two teams offensively, I think we could think that it is going to be a spectacular game,” he said. ”We know the strength of the opposing team. We have our own strength.”

Deschamps will be aware of the threat of one Lamine Yamal, who, whilst not lighting up the tournament as of yet, still has massive amounts of talent and more than played his part as a 17-year old when Spain knocked France out of Euro 2024.

“Have I studied Yamal and his assets? Yes, he’s one of the players who can really make a difference on the pitch. All opponents should try to limit the strength of the other team, but we have many solutions.”

“When it comes to one-on-ones, it could be tough. But having a one-on-one against some of my players is not an easy task either.”

One of his players is captain and leader Kylian Mbappe, who, despite coming off during their victory over Morocco, was confirmed to be ‘100%’ by Deschamps. Mbappe has netted eight times and sits just one behind Lionel Messi in the all-time World Cup goalscoring charts with 20.

Spain don’t have any player that is performing to the calibre of Mbappe and his teammate Michael Olise, but Deschamps was quick to dismiss any notion of France being favourites over the European Champions.

”Forget about the first game against Cape Verde,” Deschamps said of Spain’s campaign. “Ever since then, Spain have confirmed that they are the favourites. I don’t want to add extra pressure to Luis (De la Fuente) and their team, he knows very well that people are expecting great things of Spain.”

“But Spain can attack well, and they can defend very well. They’ve only conceded one goal in the last six or seven matches.”

Deschamps’ side will need to be at their very best if they are to keep Yamal quiet, and defender Ibrahim Konate believes his side needs to focus on the rest of Spain’s attack as well. The former Liverpool defender hasn’t featured massively during this campaign but insists his teammates know how to prepare for Spain as he joined Deschamps for his press conference.

“The goal isn’t to focus on just one player in particular, because it’s the entire team that can cause harm. So, it’s not just Lamine. It’s the whole team.”

“It’s clear we’re going to talk about what they’ve been offering since the start of this competition, because what they offer offensively is quite exceptional.”

France and Spain are most likely the best two sides in the world alongside Argentina, and both will be absolutely desperate to make the final for vastly different reasons.

For France, it’s a chance for them to exorcise their demons of Qatar and potentially get one over their South American rivals should the latter get past England.

For Spain, it’s a chance for La Roja to return to the heights of their prime tiki-taka style in 2010 and establish their dominance over Europe into a dominance over World football.

As Deschamps noted, this game should be a fantastic affair for all involved and for many, it is the ‘final before the final’ pitting the two best teams in the world against each other.

France vs Spain kicks off at 8:00pm UK time in Dallas and will be broadcast live on ITV.