Arlington, July 15 (IANS) “When you win, you hold your head high; when you lose, you have to keep it.” These are the words of French captain Kylian Mbappe, who admitted that Les Bleus failed to execute their game plan that allowed Spain to dictate the tempo in a 2-0 defeat at the FIFA World Cup 2026.

Spain have produced a complete team performance to overcome France. They controlled the game from start to finish, nullifying Les Blues’ world-class forwards while playing with poise and verve in attack.

“We didn’t play the match we wanted to play, whether tactically, technically, or in terms of our overall performance. When you don’t do what you’re supposed to do in a World Cup semi-final, you don’t win. Spain stuck to their game plan. In terms of controlling the game, they’re better than us; we weren’t able to do that. There were too many technical errors. We didn’t play the match we had prepared for; we let them dictate the tempo, and if Spain dictates the tempo with their ball control and overall level, it’s difficult,” Mbappe said after the match.

“It was up to us to change that. How? From the start, in our pressing, in the way we pressed them, we always found ourselves three against two in midfield, and against Spain, that’s always difficult.”

France lost their first knockout match in the World Cup since the 2014 quarter-final against Germany (0-1). That makes 11 matches (10 wins, 1 draw). This was France’s fourth defeat in the semi-finals of the World Cup (1958, 1982, 1986, 2026) in eight appearances. Moreover, this was the third consecutive elimination against Spain in the semi-finals of a competition after Euro 2024 (2-1) and the Nations League 2025 (5-4).

“We needed to play one-on-one; this is a team that doesn’t like to run… When we won the ball back, the first passes, the first touches weren’t worthy of a World Cup semi-final. It’s a huge disappointment, of course, but if we’re objective, we didn’t put in all the necessary effort. I feel very disappointed; it was a dream for us to reach the final and give our country that chance to dream.

“When you win, you hold your head high; when you lose, you have to keep it. I’m struggling to find the words. We’ll have to pick ourselves up, go on holiday, and put this defeat behind us because other things will come up at club and international level,” he added.

France will now play in the third-place playoff, which will be Didier Deschamps’ last game as coach.

–IANS

bc/