Kylian Mbappe didn’t hold back. After France got knocked out of the World Cup by Spain in a 2-0 semifinal loss that felt a lot more lopsided than the score, their captain pointed straight at a tactical issue he thinks sealed their fate: the midfield matchup.
France came out with a 4-3-3, but it played more like a 4-2-3-1 on the night, with Aurelien Tchouameni and Adrien Rabiot left to handle Spain’s three-man midfield alone. It didn’t work. Rodri, Fabian Ruiz and Dani Olmo basically controlled the tempo from start to finish.
“We were three against two in midfield and against Spain, that’s hard,” Mbappe said after the match. “Fabian and Rodri had plenty of time to play. There was a lack of communication on the press. I think we should have done man-to-man press and force them to run with us.”
It’s rare to hear a captain openly question the tactical setup like that after a loss. But Mbappe made it clear the plan wasn’t the problem. The execution was. France wanted to press high, disrupt Spain’s rhythm and force mistakes. Instead, they got picked apart.
Spain made them pay for the small mistakes
The first goal came from a penalty converted by Mikel Oyarzabal. The second from Pedro Porro, who ghosted in late when France pushed numbers forward. By then the game was already slipping away.
Mbappe didn’t blame any one player. He blamed the whole thing. “We didn’t play the game we wanted, technically, tactically. When you don’t do what you have to do in a World Cup semifinal, you don’t win.”
He’s not wrong. France looked sloppy. Their passing was off, their press was disconnected and they never really threatened until it was too late. Spain respected their own game plan and made France look ordinary.
“Because they are better than us at controlling a game. We didn’t manage to do it. We were too sloppy technically. We could not hurt them when we could have.”
Deschamps’ era ends with a bronze game
This loss also marks the end of an era. Didier Deschamps, the man who led France to the 2018 title and the 2022 final, will step down after the third-place play-off. Zinedine Zidane is expected to take over pretty quickly after that, according to multiple reports.
That third-place game doesn’t feel like much of a consolation right now. But for Mbappe and the rest, it’s a last chance to leave this tournament with something. And maybe a chance to start figuring out what went wrong before the next cycle begins.
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