I’ll admit I almost skipped setting a reminder for this one — semifinals between two European giants can sometimes underwhelm compared to their build-up. This wasn’t one of those times. Here’s everything I used to actually catch the match, plus why it was worth clearing my schedule for.
When and where it was played
France and Spain met on Tuesday, July 14, at AT&T Stadium in Dallas — kickoff at 3:00 p.m. Eastern (8:00 p.m. local UK time, 9:00 p.m. CEST for European viewers). It was the first of the tournament’s two semifinals, with the winner heading to New Jersey for the final.
How to actually watch it
In the U.S.: FOX carried the English-language broadcast, with Telemundo handling Spanish-language commentary. Both are accessible through cord-cutting services — I used Fubo myself, but YouTube TV, Hulu+Live TV, Sling, and DirecTV Stream all carry Fox and Telemundo as well, and most offer free trial windows if you only need to catch one match.
FOX’s broadcast team for the match: John Strong and Stu Holden on commentary, Mark Clattenberg as rules analyst, with Jenny Taft and Natalie Gedra reporting pitch-side. Studio coverage came from Rebecca Lowe, alongside Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimović, and Alexi Lalas — genuinely one of the stronger panels FOX has assembled for this tournament. On the Spanish-language side, Telemundo’s team included Luis Omar Tapia and Diego Balado on commentary, with Carlota Vizmanos and Miguel Gurwitz hosting from the stadium alongside analysts Iván Zamorano, Andrés Guardado, and Guti.
Outside the U.S.: if you’re traveling and having trouble accessing your usual stream because of regional blackouts, a VPN service is the standard workaround — ExpressVPN is one commonly recommended option for reconnecting to your home region’s stream. This matters more than people expect during a tournament like this, since blackout rules can vary by country even for the same match.
Why this particular semifinal mattered so much
This wasn’t just two good teams meeting by bracket luck. France came in as one of the pre-tournament favorites, riding a 3-1 opening win over Senegal, a 3-0 win over Iraq, and a 4-1 dismantling of a rotated Norway side to top their group, before steamrolling through the knockout rounds. Spain, meanwhile, had conceded just a single goal across the entire tournament heading into this match — one of the stingiest defensive records of any team left in the competition.
The head-to-head history added even more weight. France and Spain had met just once before at a World Cup — a 2006 round-of-16 clash that France won 3-1 after trailing early, with Zinédine Zidane playing a starring role in the comeback. But more recently, the rivalry had flipped entirely in Spain’s favor: they’d won their last two meetings, 2-1 at Euro 2024 and a wild 5-4 win in the 2025 Nations League semifinal, both at the semifinal stage of major tournaments. This match would decide whether that recent pattern was a real shift or just a two-game streak.
The broader context for both teams
For France, this was about proving they still belonged among the tournament favorites after their runner-up finish in 2022. Manager Didier Deschamps was chasing a third final in four tournaments, having already won in 2018 and reached the final in 2022 — a level of sustained knockout-round success that very few national teams manage across consecutive cycles.
For Spain, the stakes were framed differently. They hadn’t reached a World Cup final since actually winning the tournament back in 2010, meaning this semifinal represented their first real shot at returning to football’s biggest stage in over a decade and a half. Manager Luis de la Fuente had built his squad around suffocating defensive organization paired with genuine attacking talent — a Spain team more balanced, by most accounts, than the possession-heavy sides of the tiki-taka era.
The storylines going in
Kylian Mbappé arrived as the tournament’s joint-top scorer with eight goals, chasing the Golden Boot and looking to lead France to a third straight final after triumphs in 2018 and their 2022 final appearance. He’d been managing a minor ankle knock from the quarterfinal win over Morocco, adding a small layer of uncertainty to his availability heading into kickoff, though he was expected to start regardless.
On Spain’s side, Mikel Oyarzabal had quietly become the tournament’s form player, contributing four goals and an assist before the semifinal even started, while 18-year-old Lamine Yamal continued to draw comparisons to some of Spain’s greatest attacking talents. The matchup between Mbappé and Yamal specifically — the established superstar against the rising one — was one of the most anticipated individual battles left in the tournament, and it carried an extra layer of intrigue given how differently each player’s tournament had gone up to that point.
What actually happened
Spain won it 2-0, with Mikel Oyarzabal converting a first-half penalty and Pedro Porro doubling the lead after the break. It extended Spain’s dominance over France to three straight wins, all at the business end of major tournaments, and sent them through to face Argentina in the final — their first World Cup final appearance since they won the whole thing back in 2010. For France, it meant an early end to Deschamps’ bid for a third final, and represented the clearest sign yet that Spain’s recent head-to-head edge over them wasn’t a fluke, but a genuine tactical answer to how France likes to play.
If you missed it live
FOX’s on-demand replay and official highlight packages are the fastest way to catch up — as the exclusive English-language broadcaster for the tournament in the U.S., their coverage tends to post the quickest, highest-quality recaps compared to third-party clip accounts. If you want the full 90 minutes rather than highlights, checking FOX’s streaming apps directly is a better bet than searching for unofficial uploads, which tend to get pulled quickly during a live tournament anyway. Telemundo’s Spanish-language replay is also available through Peacock for anyone who prefers that broadcast.
Sources referenced: Yahoo Sports, USA Today, Fox Sports, and Wired’s 2026 FIFA World Cup broadcast coverage.