Spain starlets Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams dazzled as La Roja beat France 5-4 in a thriller in Stuttgart on Thursday, to set up a Nations League final with Portugal.
\nYamal \u2014 who was named La Liga Best Under-23 player \u2014 bagged a brace while Williams scored and provided an assist as the two wingers cut France\u2019s makeshift defence to ribbons.
\nMikel Merino and Pedri were also on the scoresheet for the Euro 2024 champions.
\nKylian Mbappe netted a second-half penalty, but Spain were 5-1 up and cruising, before Les Bleus suddenly woke up as their opponents took their foot off the pedal.
\nFrance\u2019s three late goals \u2014 a Rayan Cherki screamer, a Spain own goal and a stoppage time strike from Randal Kolo Muani \u2014 were not enough.
\nYamal, still just 17, said Spain \u201cdeserved to win.\u201d
\n\u201cIt was a great game \u2014 at the end it was a little too close, but we played very well,\u201d he added.
\nSpain held on to book an all-Iberian Nations League final against Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal on Sunday in Munich, while France will face hosts Germany in Stuttgart for the bronze medal, earlier in the day.
\nA smiling goalscorer Merino told DAZN: \u201cIt was a crazy game. Not the best game for the coaches \u2014 nobody wants to concede so many goals \u2014 but an amazing game for the fans. We\u2019re going to remember this one for a long time.\u201d
\nReturning to Germany where they won the European Championship in dominant fashion a year ago, Spain seem an even more complete team, despite their late fadeout.
\nFrance coach Didier Deschamps said \u201cit\u2019s a mixed bag.\u201d
\n\u201cNot everything can be thrown in the rubbish bin\u2026 but I\u2019m not leaving with a smile,\u201d he added.
\nFrance were more dangerous in the opening stages, with Deschamps electing to channel his attack through Ousmane Dembele rather than Mbappe.
\nDembele, fresh from Paris St-Germain\u2019s Champions League triumph, created an early chance for Mbappe, but the Real Madrid superstar wasted it, electing to pass rather than shoot when one-on-one with the \u2019keeper.
\nMinutes later, Spain escaped again as Theo Hernandez\u2019s long-range effort shaved the top of the crossbar.
\nSpain made France pay soon after, when Williams and Oyarzabal, La Roja\u2019s two goalscorers in the Euro 2024 final, linked up with 22 minutes played.
\nAfter a tear down the right, Yamal threaded it to Oyarzabal, who held off three defenders with his back to goal before finding Williams, who rifled his shot into the top of the net.
\nSpain grabbed full hold of the match just three minutes later when Oyarzabal dinked the French defence, allowing Merino to collect and hammer past an off-balance Maignan.
\nFrance had the better chances later in the half, with Dembele finding space in the box three times only to blast straight at a grateful Unai Simon.
\nJust before half-time, the narrowest of offsides robbed Spain of what would have been an incredible third.
\nIn a clearly rehearsed free-kick play, Yamal found Martin Zubimendi behind the lines, who cut it back for Huijsen.
\nThe second-half played out line the first, with France missing two big chances before Spain again scored a quick-fire double.
\nWith 54 minutes played, Yamal won and converted a penalty, taking the ball from Williams before calmly slotting home.
\nFrance were reeling but Spain\u2019s starlets had no sympathy, Williams setting up Pedri for a fourth just one minute later.
\nMbappe won and converted a penalty with 59 minutes played but Yamal stepped up again to snuff out French hopes of an unlikely comeback, scoring Spain\u2019s fifth with just over 20 minutes remaining.
\nSpain made four changes a their thoughts turned to Sunday, allowing France to score two late consolation goals.
\nSubstitute Cherki scored a long-range effort on debut and then France forced Spain into conceding an own goal through Daniel Vivian.
\nKolo Muani\u2019s header came in the fourth minute of stoppage time to cut the deficit to one, but France had left their comeback too late, as Spain held on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Spain starlets Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams dazzled as La Roja beat France 5-4 in a thriller in Stuttgart on Thursday, to set up a Nations League final with Portugal. Yamal \u2014 who was named La Liga Best Under-23 player \u2014 bagged a brace while Williams scored and provided an assist as the two wingers …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":82169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82200","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\/82200","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=82200"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82210,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82200\/revisions\/82210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}