Jack Wright’s Spain vs France
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Spain will likely dominate possession in this match as that suits both teams’ style of play. France allowed Portugal 60% of the ball in their quarter final and Luis de la Fuente’s side rank fourth across the tournament with an average of 57.3%. This should see the Spanish have plenty of possession around the opposition penalty area with Les Bleus sitting in deep.

Spain’s midfield could therefore be key with late runs into the box and shots from distance. None do that better in this side than Fabian Ruiz who has already scored twice. None of his teammates have had more than his 13 shots in total or eight from outside of the area. The Paris Saint-Germain midfielder has had at least two attempts at goal in his last three appearances with a high of seven against Georgia in the Round of 16 clash.

With Spain playing an aggressive, quicker and slightly more direct style under their current manager a noticeable tactic is their desire to win the ball back quickly when they lose it. It is therefore no surprise to see them give away more than a fair share of free kicks.

In fact, no team has committed more fouls than their 71 at an average of 14.8 per game. La Roja have conceded a minimum of 14 free kicks in all five of their games so far at Euro 2024 and that was against a Georgia side that only had 24.8% possession.

As already mentioned, expect the French to do a lot of defending here as they did against Portugal in the last round. Spain is the second-most-tackled team in the tournament with their five opponents combining for exactly 100 tackles in normal time (Germany completed another four during extra time). While Didier Deschamps’ side rank fourth for tackles made over their five games.

Only two players have made more tackles this tournament than Jules Koundé (15) and he will be directly up against out and out winger Nico Williams whose love of running with the ball will give the French right back plenty of opportunity to add to that tally. The same can be said on the other flank which sees 16-year-old Lamine Yamal do battle with Théo Hernández.