Spain was benched for this match, lining up a 4231 with defenders Laporte, Nacho, Navas, Cucurella, Rodri at the back, Fabián Ruiz, attacking Olmo midfielder, Williams on the wings, Yamal, and Morata up front.
Defenders Saliba in France discharged 433, Upamecano, Koundé, Théo Hernandez, Tchouam midfielder éni, Kanté, Rabiot, Mbapp forward line é, Dembélé, Muani
(Pre-emptive linking)
The biggest change for France was putting away Griezmann in this game, evolving into three defensive midfielders and lacking an organizational brain. It seemed like they were going to give the ball directly to the wings to attack. This is a big change. Prior to this, even when lining up in something like a 433, Griezmann would essentially move to the center on the right flank. This game embraced him straight away and Spain had no choice but to use substitutes Nacho and 38 year old Navas in the backline.
Within the first five minutes of the game, Spain initiated crosses on the left and right flanks, with Williams breaking through Kounddé with a diagonal pass, and Yamal managing to get up in front of Théo, with the Spanish players in the central area having top centers. At this point, the two French wingbacks seemed to be having a hard time getting used to the Spanish wingers.
The result was a sudden distribution to the left on France's attack at the 8:00 mark, where Mbappé faced Navas, Muani shrugged off Laporte's top ball straight down the center to break through, and France took the lead when they got the ball and started straight up the left side as well.
The goal was Laporte's problem, Muani's movement was very good, he started with a false charge when the ball was split, taking Nacho slightly back and crowding even Laporte and Cucurella at the far post, at this point Mbappé waited a little longer and Navas, who had dropped down the wing, retreated a little deeper, at which point the center of the French team again split the ball, Mbappé suddenly moved a step forward and let the ball go straight through him for Muani to head in. Mbappé was not offside and then on a cross, Muani suddenly moved a step forward, Laporte didn't seem to react and let the ball go straight through him for Muani to head in in the air, well done in fact.
As Spain tried to attack, France launched a counter-attack, Rabiot got the ball on the right side of the field, Navas was forced to guard him, but the road to the left of Mbapp. é was again completely empty. As soon as Rabiot passes the ball, it becomes a one-two punch for Mbappé, and Navas has no choice but to tackle Rabiot, resulting in a yellow card. At this point, Navas can't seem to defend M'Huang's left attack.
At this stage France still had the advantage as Spain were wide open at the back when trying to chase points and Mbappé you can get a lot of chances. There was a chance for France to take the second point, but on the 20, Spain counter attacked upfield and Yamal took the ball and snapped it at the 21, distancing himself slightly from Rabiot. Then suddenly he took a direct kick. The kick actually took a big arc, completely exceeding the limits of goalkeeper Maignan's ability to make a save. Then it looked like he was going to go out of bounds, but it went straight into the goal to score. It's a superb ball, impossible to defend, and Rabiot did make a mistake.
Spain's momentum was boosted by the goal and then they continued to attack. 24 minutes in, Navas was first pushed out with a cross from the right, but the ball was still in the box.Olmo picked up the ball in the box and picked it out, Tchouamé then ni went to the right side of the six-yard box and fired a powerful shot, Koundé tried to block it in front of the goal, but the shot was so fast that Koundé couldn't quite block the ball, instead the ball hit his foot and Spain went from being behind to being on the back foot in a very short space of time.
