🔬 The Debrief as Spain defeat France to qualify for EURO 2024 final

EURO 2024 has its first finalist after Spain defeated France in a game worthy of the occasion.Here is what we made of the action on day 22.What happened? 📝Despite falling behind to a ninth minute opener from Randal Kolo-Muani, Spain came back to defeat France 2-1 in a thriller in Munich.Lamine Yamal stepped up to confirm his status as football’s next big thing with a simply stunning equaliser in the 21st minute before the suddenly clinical Dani Olmo completed the turnaround four minutes later, albeit with the aid of a deflection.Luis de la Fuente’s men held out relatively comfortably in the second half to book their spot in Sunday’s Berlin final, where they will undoubtedly be the favourites to complete a perfect tournament and lift a record-fourth European Championship.Player of the day 🔥Spain have been the definition of a team throughout the competition and were again tonight, but Lamine Yamal deserves all the praise that is coming his way.Much has been made about both the winger’s prodigious talent and age ever since he broke through the ranks at Barcelona to become their youngest ever player at the end of the 2022-23 season.It could easily have been overwhelming but he has taken absolutely everything in his stride and did again tonight, announcing himself as not just a youth star, but a superstar.His 21st minute equaliser was a thing of beauty, giving Mike Maignan no chance from just outside the box. It unsurprisingly made him the youngest ever EUROs scorer at the age of just 16 years and 362 days, obliterating the previous record held by the near-18 months “older” Johan Vonlanthen.He also eclipsed Pelé’s 64-year-old record and became the youngest player to score in any major international tournament semi-final.Next, he will become the youngest player to play in a final, but not before turning 17 on Saturday.Quite the weekend ahead.Moment of the day 😍What else?After being told he would “have to do much more against us than he has done so far” by Adrien Rabiot in the build up, Lamine Yamal made the French midfielder eat his words with arguably the goal of the tournament .That it came after moving to the left of Rabiot made it all the sweeter.A goal that will live forever in EUROs history.Photo of the day 📸Unstoppable.Stat of the day 📊For the very first time, France have lost a game at a major tournament with N'Golo Kanté in the side.WWWWWWDWWWWWDDDWDDWDLThe longest unbeaten streak by any European player is over. ❌#EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/KENRdoJrUC— Squawka (@Squawka) July 9, 2024Is this the last we’ve seen of him in a French shirt? If so, what a summer renaissance and what a career!What this means 🤔Spain’s semi-final win has equalled and created some EUROs history. La Roja are now level with Germany for five final appearances, and are the first side to ever win six consecutive games at the tournament.Could it be a magnificent seven in Berlin? And a record-breaking fourth European crown?One concern for Luis de la Fuente will be the fitness of his captain, Álvaro Morata, who had a photographer slip and crash into him during the post-match celebrations.As for France, tonight marked the end of a disappointing campaign, in which they scored just one goal from open play and generally failed to live up to their much-vaunted reputation, most notably the compromised Kylian Mbappé.Will it mark the end of Didier Deschamps’ time in charge?What they said 🗣️Responding to Rabiot’s comments, Spain’s hero Lamine Yamal reportedly shouted “Speak now, Speak now” at full-time.Fair enough.Meanwhile, Didier Deschamps was happy to hand the credit to Spain, lamenting his side’s failure to play vertically enough.“We were able to open the scoring, which was great. Spain mastered the game better than us, though. We didn’t perform that well, we didn’t play as vertically as I wanted. We pushed all the way to the end.”What comes next? ⏭️Spain’s opponents in the final will be decided on Wednesday night when England and the Netherlands meet in Dortmund.Neither side have been (hugely) impressive en route to the last four but are now within one game of Sunday’s showpiece.