Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams, both stars of Spain, stunned La Roja in a thrilling thriller against France in Stuttgart on Thursday, clinching a Nations League title with Portugal.
As the two wingers cut France’s impromptu defense to ribbons, Yamal scored a brace, Williams added an assist, and Williams added a pair of goals.
The Euro 2024 champions also had Mikel Merino and Pedri on their scoring charts.
Before Les Bleus suddenly woke up as their opponents took their foot off the pedal, Kylian Mbappe scored a second-half penalty, which gave Spain a 5-1 lead.
A Spain own goal and a stoppage-time strike from Randal Kolo Muani, all but enough to give France three late goals, were not enough.
Yamal, who is only 17 years old, claimed Spain “deserved to win.”
The game was excellent, he continued, “We played very well even though it was a little too close at the end.”
Spain and Portugal will face off in Munich on Sunday in an all-Iberian Nations League final, while France will face hosts Germany in Stuttgart earlier in the day for the bronze medal.
Merino, a gleeful goalscorer, once admitted: “It was a crazy game. Nobody wants to concede so many goals, so it’s not the best game for the coaches; the fans will enjoy it.
We’ll be thinking about this for a very long time.
Despite their late exit, Spain appear to be a more complete team than they were a year ago when they won the European Championship in a dominant manner.
Read more about Chelsea beating Chelsea at Everton and signing Ipswich striker Delap.
Spain is effective, France is dangerous.
In the first half, Didier Deschamps chose to use Ousmane Dembele as his weapon over Mbappe, who was more dangerous.
Dembele, who is returning from Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League triumph, wasted a chance by passing pass instead of shooting in a one-on-one situation with the ‘keeper.
Spain regrouped just as Theo Hernandez’s long-range effort erased the top of the crossbar with a moment’s notice.
Spain immediately paid for the pair of goalscorers from La Roja’s Euro 2024 final, Williams and Oyarzabal, who had already scored 22 minutes later.
Yamal threw his shot into the top of the net after a tear down the right, holding off three defenders with his back to goal before finding Williams.
When Oyarzabal dinked the French defense, allowing Merino to collect and hammer past an off-balance Maignan, Spain had a three-minute lead.
Later in the half, France had better chances as Dembele blocked a grateful Unai Simon with a straight shot after finding space in the box three times.
Spain was stripped of what would have been an incredible third just before half-time by the narrowest of offsides.
Martin Zubimendi cut it back for Huijsen in a blatantly practiced free-kick play.
France missed two important chances in the second half before Spain once more doubled in a hurry.
With 54 minutes left, Yamal won and won a penalty, taking Williams’ hand and hurriedly heading home.
Williams set up Pedri for a fourth time just one minute later, but France was reeling.
With just over 20 minutes left, Mbappe won and scored a penalty, but Yamal stepped up again to stifle French hopes of a likely comeback.
France scored two late consolation goals thanks to four changes made by Spain as their thoughts turned to Sunday.
Through Daniel Vivian, Spain forced to concede an own goal after substitute Cherki scored a long-range effort.
In stoppage time, Kolo Muani scored in the fourth minute to reduce the deficit, but Spain held on as France made a late comeback.
Source: Channels TV
Leave a Reply