After presenting a masterpiece of aggressive football, Didier Deschamps' France is the team that will win the 2026 World Cup. France's opponent in the semi-final on Wednesday was Spain, which was a draw. This is the same Spain that finally defeated France badly and France's campaign to reach the World Cup final for the third time in a row was set back. Despite the high expectations of many, France ultimately failed in its serious test of the World Cup. 

After a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Spain, France's challenge in the tournament is over. France's performance is not good in any area. Just like France's poor performance in the first hour against Argentina in the 2022 World Cup final. France managed to make a comeback in that night's match. However, France lost the title on a tiebreaker. Despite the defeat, France's performance was able to walk with its head held high and was a great final match in itself. 

France could not do anything like that in the first semi-final this time. The team's performance was not impressive. Rather, it was a sample of the excellent performance presented by Spain, which France could do nothing but watch. After the match, coach Deschamps admitted, "We were only the second best team. We looked weak in front of them. All our players are shocked by this result." France could not read Spain's game as an opponent. The players could not even guess what the opponent was like. 

French player Ryan Cherki, who entered the field as a substitute in the second half, said, "What we knew was that Spain is good at playing at a slow pace. It slows down the pace of the game. We probably should have played slowly at that time. It turned out to be much more difficult than we had tried to understand the game." 

Before the match started, Spain's Lamine Yamal had threatened that it was France, not his team, who was to be feared. That is what happened in the match, with Michael Olis failing miserably due to France's poor performance. He was considered not only a playmaker in the old style of football, but also a potential winner of the Ballon d'Or in the coming years. But he was found to be lost in his own game at the Dallas stadium. Not only did he constantly lose control of the ball, he paled in comparison to Rodri on the field. The king of midfield was Rodri and his performance dominated the entire field. 

Finally, coach Deschamps' long association with the French team will now come to an end. He could not end his coaching career the way he wanted. Now for him, the third-place match on Saturday will end with France. He had already announced his departure from the French team before the tournament. As a player, he won the World Cup in 1998. He also won the World Cup as a coach in 2018, but now it is his turn to take his leave.