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If this is to be Spain’s first men’s trophy since the glory era of 2008-12, there couldn’t be a better signal of a new era than the youngest player in the history of the European Championships scoring the goal to set them on their way to the final. Kylian Mbappe, having finally taken his mask off, will not be showing his face in Berlin on Sunday. The final will instead see a star who may well be his successor, in Lamine Yamal. He had already illuminated Euro 2024 and now he has elevated it, scoring a sensational strike that transformed Spain’s 2-1 comeback against France. It was both genius in the manner of the strike and in how he delivered something like that when his team really needed it.
This was a launchpad moment. It may also have been a moment of realisation for France, whose minimalist football reached its limits. Having told people all tournament to change the channel if they don’t like what they’re seeing, Didier Deschamps may have to do the same on Sunday. It’s hard not to think France have so wasted a generation, to the point they looked a dull side with the talent looking nowhere near the level it should.
The reality is that it would have been a football travesty if this side had eliminated Spain. It would have been the wrong legacy of the tournament, and the wrong lesson. It is better for the game that this extent of “tournament ball” does not progress further. This isn’t what we watch it for. We do watch it for what Yamal did, Rodri’s passing and Nico Williams’s electric running.
The team of the tournament are now one game from being its winners, their new energy complementing the vintage control that ultimately saw the game through.
England, should they get there, are going to have quite a task matching this.
The irony was that this was the first match where France were actually involved in something absorbing, with the first half maybe the best spell of football in the tournament.
That was before Spain asserted their greater team quality, but France’s individuals did initially look like they might finally step.
It was a half so rich in moments, the storylines that make them, and with some of the evident quality applied.
Without the mask, Mbappe duly showed his true self at the tournament. On nine minutes, he curved over the most divinely inviting cross for Randal Kolo Muani. The forward, whose shot against Argentina is probably his defining career moment so far, couldn’t miss. France were away, in what looked maybe the worst possible start for a spectacle given that they could then sit back. It wasn’t the only perception that was to be overturned.
One reason that Mbappe was able to deliver a ball of that class was because Jesus Navas played him onside. It had been a poor start to the match for the stand-in full-back, which was maybe no surprise given that he is a 38-year-old who was charged with taking on a superstar in his prime. France seemed to be constantly finding space in the Spanish half, especially down the flanks. Luis De La Fuente’s men weren’t counter-pressing in the way they usually do. They just weren’t at it. The early goal seemed to have an undue effect on them.
They needed something to change.
That made it all the more remarkable that the youngest player on the pitch turned it, especially given the manner he did. In curling in that most spectacular of strikes, Yamal duly became the youngest player to score at a European Championships by well over a year. Lionel Messi at his peak would have been proud of this. It was something that Yamal had been threatening to do for all of this tournament. He found his range, having barely needed to lose his marker. The winger turned this way and that before unleashing.
Spain were released, and transformed. There was a sharpness about them again, as they began to dominate. France were ceding space in a way that just hasn’t been seen at this tournament, because of the way they were pulled around. Eventually, a deflected cross fell to Dani Olmo, but he didn’t let it drop. The midfielder instead took the most exquisite touch to take the French defence out, before driving at goal. Jules Kounde diverted so it was initially given as an own goal, which felt a travesty given the quality of the touch. The officials eventually ruled that Olmo’s shot was indeed going in.
France’s paucity of true creators was suddenly exposed. They needed Mbappe to step up. Antoine Griezmann was eventually brought on.
Spain nevertheless did seem a little too content to wait and just try get it to Yamal and Williams on the break. That did at least bring an enthralling ongoing duel between Williams and Kounde. There were so many moments when they were just in races against each other, that ended with fine attacking play or robust defending. Mike Maignan was once out brilliantly to save his defender.
There was still that danger while Mbappe was on the pitch, though. He had so many runs that only needed that one wrong move from a defender. One late break should have brought a much better shot from someone of his quality.
That maybe played into some of the Spanish caution that took hold later on. They could have killed the game, but instead kept possession spells alive.
Perhaps that is some tournament inexperience, as they sought to mimic their great side in a different way.
They have now echoed them by reaching a first final since 2012. Justice was done, because Yamal did the spectacular.
