Two of football’s greatest players clash in the World Cup semi-finals, and there may be a slice of revenge on the line.
France have drawn Spain, with the winner facing the victor of England vs Argentina.
So far France have exceeded expectations, with Kylian Mbappe leading the way up front, now second in all-time World Cup scoring.
Spain, on the other hand, have been largely disappointing, with their poster boy, Lamine Yamal, yet to turn up.
Yet given the history between the pair, that could all change very quickly.
Mbappe and Lamine have faced off for club and country and so far the latter is dominating.
Lamine’s club and country dominance over Mbappe
The young Spaniard has won eight out of 10 meetings since April 2024 with club and country.
Those include twice with their countries, Spain winning 2-1 on the way to taking Euro 2024, and again 5-4 in the Nations League a year ago.
For their clubs the most recent result was a 3-2 Barca win over Real Madrid in the Spanish Supercopa.
Before that, one of Mbappe’s two wins came in LaLiga, but it turned out pointless as Barca won the division with ease.
Further head-to-heads came in the 2024 Supercopa which Barca won, and the 2025 Copa del Rey also won by the Catalans.
There has also been a 4-0 LaLiga win for Barca on their way to another title, and Mbappe’s only real success came with PSG.
Paris overturned a quarter-final deficit in 2024 in their first face-off, only to lose in the next round against Borussia Dortmund.
In that time Mbappe has an impressive nine goals and two assists, while Lamine has six goals and three assists.
Lamine doesn’t care about France’s form
Yet since the PSG tie it’s been pretty much all Lamine, and the teen star doesn’t see things changing.
Asked if there was a clear World Cup favourite before the knockouts, he said: “No. I don’t think there’s any national team where you can say, ‘It’s impossible to beat them.’”
The interviewer then suggested France, and Lamine responded: “No.
“They didn’t beat us at the European Championship. So they can’t be better than us.”
When their form was put to the Barcelona starlet, he was just as definitive.
“That doesn’t matter, the group stage means nothing, look at Germany, for example,” he said.
“The World Cup starts now. The World Cup starts now. From this point on, it has nothing to do with the earlier matches.
“We could have drawn every game, and now we eliminate France – and that’s how it is. So I don’t think there’s any favourite.
“Obviously France comes in with very good form, playing at a high level, and they have excellent players.
“But I don’t think they’re above anyone else. Above anyone, really. For me, no team is above any other team.”
Leave a Reply