Semi-final showdown
\nARLINGTON
\nLamine Yamal is hoping to emulate Kylian Mbappe by winning the World Cup as a teenager, but first his Spain side will have to get the better of France and their superstar captain in Tuesday\u2019s semi-final.
\nWhen Mbappe scored in France\u2019s win over Croatia in the deciding match of the 2018 tournament, he was just 19 years and 207 days old. He therefore became only the second teenager to score in a World Cup final after a 17-year-old Pele in 1958.
\nMbappe\u2019s love affair with the World Cup began then, while this is Yamal\u2019s first experience of the competition.
\nHe has already had his big breakthrough in a major tournament, however \u2014 Yamal\u2019s stunning goal in the Euro 2024 semi-final against Mbappe\u2019s France helped Spain to a 2-1 victory.
\nThat came four days before he turned 17. His birthday was the day before the final. Spain beat England, and Yamal was named young player of the tournament.
\nThis time his 19th birthday comes on the eve of the semi-final in Arlington.
\nSuch a young player with his best years to come. But he is clearly eager to leave a firm mark on this World Cup.
\nPerhaps too eager, having at one point been a doubt for the tournament after missing the end of the season with Barcelona due to a hamstring injury.
\n\u201cI was afraid it might be serious and, above all, that even if it wasn\u2019t serious, I could suffer a setback and end up missing the World Cup,\u201d Yamal admitted in late May.<\/p>\n
Anxiety?
\nAfter coming off the bench in Spain\u2019s opening 0-0 draw with Cape Verde, Yamal started against Saudi Arabia and scored before being replaced at half-time in a 4-0 victory.
\nHe has started every game since, without adding to that solitary goal \u2014 that might be getting to him.
\n\u201cI think Lamine needs to calm the anxiety he sometimes has because he wants to show how important a player he is for us,\u201d Spain captain Rodri said Sunday.
\n\u201cGiven he was able to show that level of maturity at that European Championship, when he is two years older you are not so impressed by what he is able to do,\u201d he added.
\nWith Yamal not as decisive, Spain have lacked the deadly verticality that made them so hard to stop at the Euros.
\nFrance, meanwhile, have rediscovered a cutting edge that evaded them at the Euros, and have the most thrilling attack at this World Cup.
\nMbappe, now 27, is the talisman and seems intent on leaving a legacy as an all-time World Cup great.
\nWith eight goals here, he is level with Lionel Messi in the golden boot race and is one behind the Argentine\u2019s all-time World Cup record of 21 goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Semi-final showdown ARLINGTON Lamine Yamal is hoping to emulate Kylian Mbappe by winning the World Cup as a teenager, but first his Spain side will have to get the better of France and their superstar captain in Tuesday\u2019s semi-final. When Mbappe scored in France\u2019s win over Croatia in the deciding match of the 2018 tournament, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":100239,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100257"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100265,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100257\/revisions\/100265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}