doy

World Cup Semi Final Pick⚽️ Spain 🇪🇸 vs France 🇫🇷 Spain to Advance (+130) Who knows which game this Lamine Yamal goal celebration is from?👀 Show love if tailing ❤️ Write up ⬇️ Lots of reasons I am happy to go against the public here so lets break it down. First, lets address the elephant in the room: France's 3-headed-monster of Dembele/Mbappe/Olise. I won't act like it doesn't exist and Spain's defense won't have their hands full. HOWEVER, they have to get the ball first. Spain's whole identity is possessing and controlling the ball. In simplest terms, the more Spain has the ball, the less France has the ball. The less France has the ball as a team, the less that 3-headed monster will have the ball. The less those 3 have the ball, the less impact they will have on the game. Second, the dominant piece for Spain: Lamine Yamal. France does not have left backs that are capable of defending Yamal 1v1. Not many teams do, but this is a bigger issue here as most other teams will just park the bus, have their LW help, and have 10 behind the ball... France are significantly less likely to do that. Part 2 of that issue is that if they do bring Doue back to help and sit back, is it invites Porro to join the attack from RB and let Yamal cut in on the dribble or roam more centrally and be in more dangerous positions when he does get it. And again, France is not used to being in a deep defensive position to defend these scenarios as they are usually the dominating team. This brings us to the THIRD reason I like this: the midfield. The French midfield are outmatched here. In past matches, they have allowed gaps and late runners to break lines without much resistance and that will only become a bigger issue if they overcorrect and sit back since it would allow Yamal to start roaming centrally more and more with Porro providing the width. Fourth, Nico William is back and could absolutely be a game changer either as a starter or off the bench as a spark. A lot of concern for some people against Spain has been that they have lacked the big fire power to score 3+ goals if they need to, and they may need to here. If any player has the ability to come in and put the defense on their heels outside of Lamine Yamal and make Spain more of a threat in the final third, it is Nico Williams and it seems people are forgetting that he is back. Fifth and Final point, Spain's defense. Like I said, I won't act like France's attack is not scary and they will probably get the better of this defense at some points. But this defense also did not allow a goal for 649 minutes before Belgium scored on 1 of their 2 shots on target throughout the game. Do I expect France to get shut out and completely stopped? No. But if their strength is as reliant on their front 3 as I think it is, and Spain is able to at least slow them down compared to what we have seen from other teams, then it allows Spain to show their teeth in the areas where they are noticeably better than France that I have already discussed.