Mbappé Eyes History as France and Spain Collide in World Cup Semifinal

DALLAS — Kylian Mbappé has already scored in two World Cup finals. Win Tuesday night, and he gets a shot at a third straight. No one has ever done that.

France faces Spain at AT&T Stadium in a semifinal that guarantees a European finalist. The winner plays either England or the Netherlands on Sunday. But the bigger story might be what Mbappé can accomplish. He scored in the 2018 final against Croatia and again in 2022 against Argentina. A third would put him alone in history. No player has scored in three consecutive World Cup finals. He’d also become just the second player ever to appear in three straight finals, joining Brazil’s Cafu.

France is chasing something bigger as a team. Only West Germany (1982-1990) and Brazil (1994-2002) have reached three consecutive finals. Deschamps’ squad can join that list with a win.

Two different offensive stories

France has scored 16 goals in five matches. Mbappé has eight of them. Ousmane Dembélé has five. Bradley Barcola has two. Desiré Doué has one. That’s a lot of firepower, even if the competition hasn’t been elite. They’ve conceded just two goals.

Spain has been stingier defensively — one goal allowed, and that came on a first-half header from Belgium’s Charles De Ketelaere in the quarterfinal. But La Roja have only scored 11 goals. For a team that plays that free-flowing attacking style and has that much talent up front, it’s lower than most expected. They’ve controlled games without blowing anyone out.

De la Fuente wants his players to enjoy it

Spain’s head coach kept it simple when he talked to reporters before the match. “I tell the players that we need to enjoy ourselves; we’re in a situation that might never happen again. That we be ourselves, and that we be wary of the opposition’s strengths. We absolutely must believe we want to go through. We’ll give it our all to reach the final.”

Spain hasn’t been to a final since winning it all in 2010. That’s their only appearance in the championship match. And with England on the other side of the bracket, there’s a real chance we see a rematch of the Euro 2024 final, where Spain won 2-1.

Kickoff is at 8 p.m. local time. The game airs live on ITV.