Consider this a spectacular telling-off for anyone tempted to cast Spain as underdogs. How they enjoyed dishing the lesson out here, booking a showdown in New Jersey on Sunday and reducing France to passengers. Didier Deschamps’ team had been billed as champions elect but their feted attack was never in the game. For Kylian Mbappé it will be another four-year wait to reconquer the globe; he was an isolated figure, snuffed out by opponents who completely dictated after going ahead.
Spain could partly thank Lucas Digne for terrible defending that conceded a penalty midway through the first half, even if there were some doubts about the award’s validity. Mikel Oyarzabal converted emphatically and the jeopardy thereafter was entirely superficial. Pedro Porro’s slickly-worked second settled the issue emphatically. Nobody will make the mistake of downplaying their prospects of seeing the job through now; France, dazed and resoundingly beaten, cut the figure of a side that could not comprehend what was happening.
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