Records after Spain's victory over France
Spain delivered a clinical display to outclass France 2-0 and book their place in the World Cup final at the Dallas Stadium on Wednesday.
France made the brighter start, but Spain struck first after Lamine Yamal was brought down inside the penalty area early in the first half. Mikel Oyarzabal calmly converted from the spot to hand La Roja the lead.
From that point, Spain took control of the contest and doubled their advantage in the 58th minute when Pedro Porro produced a superb finish. The victory confirmed France's exit and sent Spain into their first World Cup final since lifting the trophy in 2010.
Records and highlights
**Spain have reached the World Cup final for the first time in 16 years. Their previous appearance came in 2010, when they defeated the Netherlands 1-0 after extra time to win their maiden World Cup title.
**Spain extended their unbeaten run in regulation time to 37 matches, with the streak stretching back to March 2024.
**Kylian Mbappe suffered his first World Cup defeat after starting a match. Before the semifinal against Spain, the Real Madrid forward had never lost a World Cup game in which he was named in the starting XI.
**France's defeat to Tunisia in the 2022 group stage does not count, as Mbappe came off the bench in that match. Likewise, the 2022 World Cup final against Argentina is officially recorded as a draw because FIFA does not count penalty shootout defeats as match losses.
**Unai Simon kept his sixth clean sheet of the tournament, the most by any goalkeeper in a single edition of the World Cup.
**Lamine Yamal maintained his perfect knockout record against Kylian Mbappe since the French forward joined Real Madrid. Yamal has now won all six knockout meetings between the pair in the UEFA Euro 2024 semifinal, Spanish Super Cup final 2025, Copa del Rey final 2025, UEFA Nations League semifinal 2025
Spanish Super Cup final 2026, FIFA World Cup semifinal 2026.
**Mikel Oyarzabal equalled Spain's all-time World Cup scoring record. His fifth World Cup goal draws him level with Emilio Butragueno (1986) and David Villa (2010) for the most goals scored by a Spanish player in the men's World Cup.
**France's defeat means Germany and Brazil remain the only nations to reach three consecutive FIFA World Cup finals. Brazil achieved the feat between 1994 and 2002, while Germany did so from 1982 to 1990. Cafu also remains the only player in history to feature in three consecutive World Cup finals (1994, 1998 and 2002).
**France have now lost three consecutive major tournament semifinals to Spain. Those defeats came at UEFA Euro 2024 (2-1), the UEFA Nations League 2025 (5-4) and the FIFA World Cup 2026 (2-0).
**Spain manager Luis de la Fuente has now managed more games across the World Cup and UEFA European Championship without ever losing than any other manager, winning 13 times and drawing once.
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