France fear no one ahead of World Cup semi-final against Spain
Spain reached the last four, conceding just one goal throughout the entire tournament, to win their second World Cup title.
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France, winners in 2018 and finalists four years ago, know Spain very well, having lost to Spain in the last four of Euro 2024 and last year’s Nations League semi-final.
“You can’t be afraid of anyone,” French defender Konate said at the press conference. “We will now prepare in the best possible way and hope that the result will be in our favour.”
“Spain are an outstanding team, they have a lot of individual quality, so although Lamine (Yamal) is a great player, we won’t focus on just one player,” said Konate, who made a brief appearance as a substitute in the win against Norway in their final group game.
Dayot Upamecano and William Saliba are France’s starting centre-backs as the tournament favorites aim for their fifth World Cup final. The French have reached four of the last seven World Cup finals. Should they qualify for the July 19 showdown in New York, they will continue to draw comparisons with West Germany, arguably the tournament’s biggest nation, with four finals between 1974 and 1990.
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However, Konate said that the French did not think about what could happen.
“We remain humble, we will not fall into that trap,” he said.
They will need to find a way to break through the most effective backline of this World Cup, while also containing Lamine’s runs down the flanks as much as possible.
“I wouldn’t say ‘fear’, but we are aware of their quality,” said France’s fellow centre-back Maxence Lacroix. “They won all their matches (except the 0-0 draw against Cape Verde in the group), so we respect them. They have high-quality players but we want to win.”
At the top of the list is Spanish winger Lamine, who has earned praise from his coach for keeping opposition defenders busy while his teammates exploit the created spaces.
“We will defend the best, the best,” Lacroix said. “Lamine is a very good player and he showed that he can hurt teams in this World Cup. We will do the necessary work.”
