{"id":54716,"date":"2026-07-14T00:23:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T00:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/54716\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T00:23:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T00:23:21","slug":"france-doesnt-engage-in-war-of-words-instigated-by-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/54716\/","title":{"rendered":"France doesn’t engage in war of words instigated by Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON \u2014 Of the four teams left in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, France has been called offside the least \u2014 only eight times throughout the entire tournament.<\/p>\n

So it wasn\u2019t a surprise the team remained disciplined and didn\u2019t get drawn out of line and into a war of words Monday, a day before France\u2019s semifinal match against Spain at Dallas Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ex-Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy is receiving backlash ahead of the match for stating that this French team \u201cdoes not have any French players<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many of France\u2019s players are of multinational heritage, including Kylian Mbapp\u00e9\u00a0(Cameroon), Rayan Cherki (Algeria), D\u00e9sir\u00e9\u00a0Dou\u00e9\u00a0(C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire)\u00a0and Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 (Senegal and Mali), but all were born in France.<\/p>\n

Midfielder\u00a0Warren\u00a0Zaire-Emery,\u00a0who is of\u00a0Martiniquais descent and also born in France, chose not to fan any flames in a pre-match news conference Monday in Dallas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, I have not read the comments,\u201d Zaire-Emery said. \u201cThis French team has different players from different backgrounds and origins in and around the country. We are a united group and a united team, and that\u2019s all that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spain has held the upper hand in the teams’ recent history, including wins in the 2024 European Championship semifinal and the 2025 Nations League playoff. After Spain\u2019s quarterfinal win over Belgium<\/a>, Barcelona star Lamine Yamal told reporters France has reason to fear his team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf anyone should be afraid it should be them. We knocked them out of the\u00a0Euros,\u201d\u00a0Yamal said<\/a>. \u201cObviously\u00a0we are two great teams, among the best in the world.\u00a0We\u2019ll\u00a0see what happens, but we have no fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zaire-Emery again offered a subdued response Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpain is 11 players and substitutes, and the same goes for us,\u201d he said. \u201cLamine has\u00a0extraordinary\u00a0qualities to shoot, to dribble, to pass and everything. We also have our qualities.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I don\u2019t look at what is being said. I remember this year when we played with my club [Paris Saint-Germain]\u00a0against Barcelona, it was the same. … We try not to take into account these declarations.\u201d<\/p>\n

It should be noted that France\u2019s lineup has changed since the Euro semifinal two years ago.<\/p>\n

After previously playing on the left, Mbapp\u00e9 is playing striker instead of then-starter Kolo Muani. France has added two of the world\u2019s best young attackers in Michael Olise and Dou\u00e9 to the front four as well, plus Bradley Barcola off the bench. Longtime midfielder N\u2019Golo Kant\u00e9 has made way for younger options in Kouadio Kon\u00e9 and Aurelien Tchouam\u00e9ni. Kon\u00e9 started in place of Tchouam\u00e9ni in the quarterfinal due to fitness concerns, but France national team manager Didier Deschamps says the Real Madrid star should be available against Spain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of uncertainties,\u201d Deschamps said Monday in Arlington. \u201cFootball is no exact science, we must prepare and anticipate, those two are important. We need to plan all the details so that we give our all before the game, and obviously the players on the pitch will do their best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Either way, France is keeping its focus on the pitch and isn’t biting on this war of words.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe past is in the past,\u201d Deschamps said. \u201cYes, they won the last two, but I\u2019m looking forward to tomorrow\u2019s game. I do not want to diminish the importance of these two last games, but we are at another level.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON \u2014 Of the four teams left in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, France has been called offside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2417,17,21845,22328],"class_list":["post-54716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-article","tag-spain","tag-tp-world-cup","tag-tp-att-stadium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}