Talk about a contrast in styles.
Spains victory over Germany provided one of the most entertaining matches of the tournament. It was an exciting blend of attacking and defensive tactics leading to the thrilling overtime victory. The Marc Cucurella handball controversy simply added to the intrigue.
France’s shootout victory over Portugal, well, they won with stifling tactics. The “just win” mentality produced a boorish 0-0 outcome after 120 minutes, but it led to Didier Deschamps side’s shootout triumph.
The pre-tournament favourites have three goals and five matches. Despite the embarrassment of riches, two of the three goals were contributed to by the opponent and the third came from a Kylian Mbappé penalty kick. France has made it clear theyre not here to entertain; theyre here to win.
This tactical analysis will preview the semi-final matchup by examining some of the attacking focal points and defensive trends of the two teams. However, no analysis that includes this French side is complete without an investigation of their pragmatism and the impact their tactics have on the match.
This is a Spanish side that has found a nice blend of attacking and defending, but will it be enough to produce a goal against this talented, ultra-conservative French side?
Lets dig into the matchup in this preview analysis.
The importance of wing play
Looking at the two teams, wing play will be central to each teams success, but for very different reasons.
For the Spanish, this is where their dynamic playmakers reside. Nico Williams, our breakout star for the Spanish side, has had a brilliant tournament. He has offered a threat running at the opponents 1v1 in the wings, offering runs behind the back line and cutting inside to create for himself and his teammates.
Then theres the young Barcelona star, Lamine Yamal. The 16-year-old hasnt had quite the tournament that Williams has had, but hes offered a steady presence on the right. Between his 1v1 ability and the quality of the services hes putting into the box, the teenage sensation has managed to pick up a couple of assists. Like Williams, he has shown hes capable of progressing the ball on his own in the wing, as well as cutting to the inside. Hell miss his right-sided partner, Real Madrids Dani Carvajal, who misses the game while serving a red card suspension, but Spain will continue to support him with Jesús Navas likely to earn the start.
Looking at each teams ball progression map, the trend to find the wide players in high positions is evident. Comparing the two maps, Spains approach certainly has more variety, with a greater emphasis on the half spaces and finding the high central target more frequently.
Here, we see the difference in approach. For France, theres a greater emphasis on finding the wide players, typically the two outside backs, as they move into the final third. Well touch on this momentarily, but even France’s ball progression signals their defensive intent and hints at their issues in possession.
Lets finish the analysis of Spains wide play first. For the Spanish side, theres an emphasis on isolating their young wingers. Carvajal’s lung-busting runs at the right-hand side have offered 2v1s and 2v2s to the Barcelona youngster pretty consistently, but the objective for Spain is to put Williams and Lamine Yamal in a position where they can use their 1v1 ability to move into the box and offer a high-quality service.
Spain has had tremendous success generating goals from wing play. With the exception of an Álvaro Morata goal, Spain has
