ARLINGTON, Texas \u2014 Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 and France haven\u2019t trailed at all during this year\u2019s World Cup. Neither has Spain with teenage sensation Lamine Yamal and clutch goal-scoring substitute Mikel Merino.<\/p>\n
Only one of those teams can make it to the final.<\/p>\n
France and Spain are both playing in their 17th World Cup but have met only once previously on soccer\u2019s biggest stage. They play Tuesday at AT&T Stadium, the home of the NFL\u2019s Dallas Cowboys, in the first of two powerhouse semifinal matches<\/a>.<\/p>\n After entering the tournament as FIFA\u2019s top-ranked team, France has outscored its opponents 14-2. Mbapp\u00e9, the 2022 Golden Boot winner, has eight goals to match Lionel Messi for the scoring lead and is one behind the Argentina captain\u2019s career record of 21 in the World Cup.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are focused,\u201d France midfielder Adrien Rabiot said. \u201cWe are confident, of course, with the course we have done so far \u2014 and we have to be \u2014 but always with this humility that has characterized us since the beginning of the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n The 27-year-old Mbapp\u00e9 has 20 goals in 20 World Cup matches, including one in the 2018 win over Croatia when he joined Pele as the only teenagers to score in a World Cup final. The star striker for Les Blues said he is fine despite exiting in the 77th minute of their 2-0 quarterfinal win over Morocco<\/a> after scoring a goal.<\/p>\n Yamal, who turned 19 on Monday, already has been part of two semifinal wins for Spain over France. He was days shy of his 17th birthday when he scored in a 2-1 win during the 2024 European Championship semifinals, and Spain won again in Nations League play last year.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe if France has to fear anyone, it should be us,\u201d Yamal said after Spain\u2019s quarterfinal victory over Belgium. \u201cWe were the ones that knocked them out before.\u201d<\/p>\n The teen has only one goal while putting 10 shots on target after coming into the World Cup still nursing a left hamstring issue that forced him to miss the final weeks of the Spanish league season for Barcelona.<\/p>\n France defender Jules Kound\u00e9 also plays for Barcelona, so he knows Yamal well and didn\u2019t feel disrespected by those comments.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me he is a sign of confidence. He always does it with (Barcelona). He trusts a lot in his virtues, in the virtues of the team where he plays,\u201d Kound\u00e9 said in translated remarks. \u201cSo I see nothing as an extra motivation for him and that\u2019s it, that\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n Spain has outscored opponents 10-1 since a stunning scoreless draw against surprising Cape Verde<\/a> to open group play, but La Roja needed late decisive goals from Merino after he entered the last two games as a second-half substitute. All while goaltender Unai Sim\u00f3n set a World Cup record of 650 minutes without allowing a goal until Belgium found the net in the 41st minute of their quarterfinal game.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that from the first game until today, the team needed to catch the rhythm. We had been without seeing each other for a long time,\u201d Spain midfielder Alex Baena said, adding that with more games and practices, \u201cthe better the team has been.\u201d<\/p>\n Merino scored in the 88th minute for that 2-1 win over Belgium<\/a> on Friday. That came after the Arsenal forward\u2019s goal in the first minute of second-half stoppage time for the 1-0 win over Portugal in the round of 16 at the same stadium where Spain\u2019s semifinal match will be played.<\/p>\n Quartet of past champions<\/p>\n This is the first World Cup since 1990 that each of the final four teams is a former champion.<\/p>\n Messi and defending champion Argentina, which beat France for the title four years ago, play England in the other semifinal Wednesday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.<\/p>\n The championship match is Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. A third-place game will be played Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla.<\/p>\n Both have lifted the World Cup trophy since they last met<\/p>\n In their only previous World Cup meeting, France beat Spain 3-1 in a round-of-16 game at the 2006 tournament in Germany.<\/p>\n Both teams have won the World Cup since then, with Spain claiming its only title in 2010. France won its second World Cup in 2018.<\/p>\n France, which will be playing on its Bastille Day national holiday, is trying to join five-time champion Brazil and four-time winner Germany as the only teams to make three consecutive World Cup finals.<\/p>\n Brazil did it in 1994, 1998 and 2002 \u2014 winning two titles and losing to host France in the middle of that run. Germany\u2019s championship in 1990 came after being runner-up in the previous two World Cups \u2014 all playing as West Germany at the time.<\/p>\n Argentina beat France in a penalty shootout in 2022 after playing to a 3-3 draw.<\/p>\n This is France\u2019s seventh semifinal appearance, its fifth in the last eight World Cups. Spain\u2019s only other semifinals were in 1950 and then 2010 on the way to the title.<\/p>\n Wrapping up in Dallas<\/p>\n AT&T Stadium will be hosting its tournament-high ninth game in this year\u2019s expanded 48-team tournament.<\/p>\n There have been some soccer superstar moments in the one-month run in the building that has hosted a Super Bowl and NCAA championship games for football and men\u2019s basketball.<\/p>\n Messi scored three goals in Argentina\u2019s two group games, the first on June 22, when, after missing a penalty kick, he broke the World Cup career scoring mark<\/a> with the first of his two goals in a 2-0 win over Austria. He added another goal as a late substitute in the group finale June 27 against Jordan.<\/p>\n