France not just focused on stopping Yamal

Syndicated reporting provided by Stats Perform and reviewed by the SoccerNews editorial team.

Ibrahima Konate knows France cannot just focus on trying to stop Lamine Yamal when they take on Spain in the World Cup semi-finals.

France and Spain will do battle in a clash between two European heavyweights at Dallas Stadium on Tuesday.

This contest sees the two favourites to win the World Cup, according to Opta’s supercomputer, go head-to-head.

Spain are ranked second favourites at 23.4%, with France the most likely winners at 34%.

Yamal has scored just once, as he works his way back to full fitness following an injury that saw his season come to an early end.

However, Yamal has still created five chances and scored a stunner when Spain beat France in the semi-finals at Euro 2024.

We are down to the final four at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

According to the Opta supercomputer, the likeliest final will be between France and England, while our latest projections suggest Les Bleus are favourites to win the whole thing. pic.twitter.com/WePRjko0nQ

— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) July 12, 2026

Defender Konate, though, says France must not just focus on attempting to stop Yamal, with Spain carrying plenty of other threats.

He said: “We’re not just thinking about stopping Lamine. Spain is an exceptional team with a lot of individual talent.

“But the goal isn’t to focus solely on one player, because it’s the whole team that can cause damage.

“Their attacking play is quite exceptional. But I think it’s a collective effort, from the midfielders to the defenders.

“What they’re doing is quite exceptional. It’s incredible. And no, perhaps we don’t talk enough about their counter-pressing, because their attacking play is so exceptional.”

Spain have won each of their last seven knockout stage matches at major tournaments, and could become the first ever European nation to win eight on the bounce (also seven in a row for Italy between 1934-1938 and La Roja themselves between 2008-2012).

Not including penalty shoot-outs, since the start of the 2018 World Cup, Spain have lost just one of their 27 matches at major tournaments, going unbeaten in their last 14 games since a 2-1 loss to Japan in Qatar in 2022.

Since that defeat, La Roja have conceded just five goals in 14 matches across the two competitions and never more than one in a game (nine clean sheets).

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