By Belize Live News Staff: Some goals win matches. Some goals define tournaments. Spain’s second against France on Tuesday might just do both.
With the semi-final at 1-0 and France pressing for a way back, Spain produced fifty-eighth minute sorcery. Pedro Porro slipped the ball to Dani Olmo, kept running, took the first-time return pass in a perfect one-two, and Olmo finished the move with the calm of a man who knew he was authoring history. Two-nil, game over, and social media melted into a single word: magic. Absolute football, the kind the game exists for.
The 2-0 victory carries Spain into Sunday’s World Cup final and leaves France, the favourites, wondering how it slipped away. The answer is equal parts art and iron. Les Bleus actually created more, 14 shots to Spain’s 10, four on target against two, but Unai Simón saved everything France mustered while Spain converted both efforts they placed on goal. Clinical does not begin to cover it.
At the other end, the great Spanish wall stands taller than ever. Shutting out Mbappé and company means Spain have conceded exactly one goal in seven World Cup matches, a defensive record that borders on the unreal. Mbappé’s blank leaves him on seven in the golden boot race, and Lionel Messi, level on seven, takes the field today with a chance to pull ahead.
For the superstitious, the omens are deafening. Spain have now beaten France in three straight major semi-finals, Euro 2024, the Nations League, and now the World Cup. And in 2010, the last time La Roja entered a World Cup semi as underdogs, they won it, then lifted the trophy that Sunday. Every stone on that old road has been retraced.
One question remains, and it gets answered today at 1:00 p.m. Belize time: England or Argentina? The winner meets Spain at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, July 19, at 1:00 p.m. If it is the Albiceleste, the Jewel gets the final it has prayed for, Messi’s farewell tour against the most beautiful team in the world.
Your verdict, Belize: goal of the tournament? And can anyone stop Spain now? Let us know in the comments.
