[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"header-nav":3,"footer-nav":29,"article-spain-belief-de-la-fuente-france-world-cup-semi-final":82,"category-counts-nav":97,"related-spain-belief-de-la-fuente-france-world-cup-semi-final":107},[4,8,11,14,17,20,23,26],{"label":5,"to":6,"exact":7},"Home","\u002F",true,{"label":9,"to":10},"World Cup","\u002Fworldcup",{"label":12,"to":13},"Standings","\u002Fstandings",{"label":15,"to":16},"Football","\u002Fcategory\u002Ffootball",{"label":18,"to":19},"Basketball","\u002Fcategory\u002Fbasketball",{"label":21,"to":22},"Tennis","\u002Fcategory\u002Ftennis",{"label":24,"to":25},"F1","\u002Fcategory\u002Ff1",{"label":27,"to":28},"Long Reads","\u002Fcategory\u002Flong-reads",{"brand":30,"columns":32,"tagline":80,"copyright":81},{"description":31},"In-depth sports journalism covering football, basketball, tennis, F1, and beyond. Daily analysis, long reads, and expert opinion.",[33,51,59],{"heading":34,"links":35},"Leagues",[36,39,42,45,48],{"label":37,"to":38},"Premier League","\u002Ftag\u002Fpremier-league",{"label":40,"to":41},"La Liga","\u002Ftag\u002Fla-liga",{"label":43,"to":44},"NBA","\u002Ftag\u002Fnba",{"label":46,"to":47},"Formula 1","\u002Ftag\u002Fformula-1",{"label":49,"to":50},"Champions League","\u002Ftag\u002Fchampions-league",{"heading":52,"links":53},"Content",[54,56,57],{"label":55,"to":16},"Analysis",{"label":27,"to":28},{"label":58,"to":16},"Data & Stats",{"heading":60,"links":61},"Company",[62,65,68,71,74,77],{"label":63,"to":64},"Terms of Service","\u002Fservice",{"label":66,"to":67},"Privacy Policy","\u002Fprivacy",{"label":69,"to":70},"Editorial Policy","\u002Feditorial",{"label":72,"to":73},"Contact Us","\u002Fcontact",{"label":75,"to":76},"About Us","\u002Fabout",{"label":78,"to":79},"Website Disclaimer","\u002Fdisclaimer","Built for the love of sport","© SportPulse. All rights reserved.",{"title":83,"slug":84,"category":85,"badge":55,"author":86,"excerpt":87,"date":88,"readTime":89,"image":90,"imageAlt":83,"tags":91,"body":95,"_path":96},"De la Fuente's Spain Back Themselves Against Tournament Favourites France","spain-belief-de-la-fuente-france-world-cup-semi-final","football","James Chen","Spain's midfield-driven quarter-final win over Belgium sets up a fiery semi-final clash with France in Dallas.","2026-07-11 08:54:29","5 min read","https:\u002F\u002Fi.guim.co.uk\u002Fimg\u002Fmedia\u002Fde6032c395838b196c8af342570574cbc0966ef0\u002F438_44_4233_3386\u002Fmaster\u002F4233.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=3618d08f088fb0812e53ba206ef2e0d1",[9,92,93,94],"Spain","France","Belgium","Spain's players should be exhausted. They should be second-guessing their system. Instead, they look like a side that has figured something out while the rest of the tournament's contenders are still searching for answers.\n\nThe facts speak for themselves. A **2-1 win over Belgium** in the quarter-finals. Goals from Fabian Ruiz and Mikel Merino. A semi-final date with France in Dallas on Tuesday. And a head coach who sounds less like a man managing expectations and more like a man who genuinely believes his midfield can dismantle anyone.\n\nLuis de la Fuente did not speak like a coach scripting an underdog narrative after the Belgium win. He spoke with the combative confidence of a manager whose tactical system is bearing fruit at the exact right time, stating he has **\"very high expectations\"** for the France clash.\n\n> \"France has exceptional potential, but so do we.\"\n\n## The Midfield Blueprint\n\nSpain's tournament has been built on something De la Fuente has worked on since taking the reins, prioritizing midfield depth and positional interplay. Against Belgium, the goals came from Fabian Ruiz and Mikel Merino. Without deriding the opposition, that detail tells you what this Spanish side is becoming.\n\nConference-era Spanish sides were defined by creative hub midfielders operating ahead of a covering holder. De la Fuente's version turns that inside out. His midfielders are interchangeable. They rotate positions with a fluidity that pulls defensive structures apart.\n\nFabian Ruiz's goal came from arriving late. Merino's from positional intelligence. These are not traditional wingers or pure number tens scoring. These are central midfielders taking advantage of the chaos the system creates.\n\n### The Numbers Behind the Approach\n\n- Goals from midfield rotation: **2** in the quarter-final alone\n- Spain's possession dominance: consistently above **60%** in tournament play\n- Quarter-final scoreline: **2-1** win over Belgium\n- Semi-final opponent: tournament favourites France\n\nThe pattern is clear. Spain play a game of positional musical chairs. The opposition sets up to defend one structure, and by the time the ball arrives in a dangerous area, the man they thought they were tracking has moved.\n\n**The Verdict:** De la Fuente's system is working precisely because it treats positional labels as suggestions rather than constraints. The midfield can score.\n\n## France Await\n\nTuesday's semi-final in Dallas is where the blueprint gets tested against the tournament's gold standard.\n\nd tournament France have been favourites for a reason. They have the depth. They have the top-end talent. They have Didier Deschamps, a coach who has been managing these tournaments for longer than some of his players have been professionals.\n\nBut there is a gap between being the favourite and being the better team on a given night. Spain's game can make that gap visible.\n\nFrance's structure under Deschamps is built on control. A firm defensive block, midfield discipline, and quality taking the chances that structure provides. It is effective. It has been effective for years. Spain's rotating midfield is built to attack exactly that kind of structure.\n\nThe midfield interchanges cause a simple problem for disciplined sides. When a player moves from his zone, somebody has to follow him. If nobody follows, that player is free. If somebody does follow, a different gap opens. Teams that defend with strict zonal marking tend to struggle most.\n\n**The Bottom Line:** France's discipline is their strength. Spain's chaos might be the antidote to it.\n\n## The Mindset Question\n\n louis de la Fuente was clear about one thing. He is not approaching this semi-final with a damage-limitation mindset. He called it a \"full-squad effort\" against Belgium, and the evidence backs that up.\n\nThis is a coach who knows his ceiling. He has the midfield depth. He has players in form. He has a system that is producing goals from broader positions. He is not pretending Spain are favourites. He is simply refusing to accept they are underdogs.\n\nThere is a psychological edge there. Tournament football often rewards the team that believes it belongs at this stage that bit more than its opponent. France have been here many times. Spain, under De la Fuente, are writing their own version of why they belong here.\n\nThe Belgium performance was not flawless. **2-1** margins are not dominant scorelines. But the manner of the win mattered. Spain did not win through a moment of individual brilliance or a set-piece stroke of fortune. They won through their midfielders making the right runs and the system creating the space for those runs to matter.\n\n### What Dallas Will Demand\n\n1. Spain must control possession without becoming sterile with it\n2. The midfield rotation must continue to generate goal-scoring positions\n3. The defensive transitions need to be flawless, because France will punish slow recoveries\n\n## The Tournament Context\n\nThere is a broader narrative at play here. Spain have not been a dominant force at major tournaments for some time. The golden generation midfield era is over, the consensus sermon goes. What De la Fuente is building is evidence that saying is premature.\n\nThe new Spain do not rely on a single creative hub. They rely on structural attack. The midfielders are the key pieces, not just the supporting cast for a forward line. That is a different Spain. It might be a more resilient one.\n\nFrance will test that resilience. They are the favourites for a reason. But favourites lose semi-finals. Spain have the plan, the personnel, and a coach who sounds like he believes this is an opportunity, not a barrier.\n\nDe la Fuente's high expectations are not bravado. They are a calculated assessment of what his team has shown it can do. The France match will tell us if that assessment is right.\n\n**The Verdict:** Spain are not the favourites. They are something potentially more dangerous: a team with a plan that fits its personnel perfectly, playing a system designed to exploit exactly what France do well.","\u002Farticles\u002Fspain-belief-de-la-fuente-france-world-cup-semi-final",[98,99,100,101,85,102,103,104,105,106],"analysis","basketball","cricket","f1","general","golf","mma","long-reads","tennis",[108,122,129],{"id":109,"stem":109,"path":110,"title":111,"category":85,"badge":112,"badgeType":113,"author":114,"authorRole":115,"authorInitials":116,"date":117,"readTime":118,"image":119,"imageAlt":111,"tags":120,"excerpt":121},"switzerland-colombia-world-cup-2026-knockout-preview","\u002Farticles\u002Fswitzerland-colombia-world-cup-2026-knockout-preview","Switzerland vs Colombia: Tactical Clash in Vancouver Knockout Preview","Match Report","tag","Marcus Wright","SportPulse Contributor","MW","2026-07-07 19:39:19","6 min read","https:\u002F\u002Fi.guim.co.uk\u002Fimg\u002Fmedia\u002F0291b9f733e7bac405ecb9d8496bdc768e1404e0\u002F1440_0_7200_5760\u002Fmaster\u002F7200.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=d64fd02b1665b06c7acd1c945feff129","World Cup 2026, Switzerland, Colombia","Switzerland and Colombia meet in Vancouver with tactical discipline facing Colombian flair in a high-stakes World Cup 2026 Round of 16 encounter.",{"id":123,"stem":123,"path":124,"title":125,"category":85,"badge":112,"badgeType":113,"author":114,"authorRole":115,"authorInitials":116,"date":126,"readTime":89,"image":127,"imageAlt":125,"tags":9,"excerpt":128},"england-argentina-world-cup-semi-final-team-news-henderson-quansah-absent","\u002Farticles\u002Fengland-argentina-world-cup-semi-final-team-news-henderson-quansah-absent","England Near Full Strength For Argentina Semi-Final Showdown","2026-07-14 20:30:53","\u002Fimages\u002Farticles\u002Fengland-argentina-world-cup-semi-final-team-news-henderson-quansah-absent.webp","Henderson and Quansah are England's only absentees for the World Cup semi-final against Argentina.",{"id":130,"stem":130,"path":131,"title":132,"category":85,"badge":133,"badgeType":134,"author":86,"authorRole":135,"authorInitials":136,"date":137,"readTime":138,"image":139,"imageAlt":132,"tags":140,"excerpt":141},"mccullum-england-sacking-stokes-retirement-aftermath","\u002Farticles\u002Fmccullum-england-sacking-stokes-retirement-aftermath","McCullum's England Rebuild Collapses Before It Ever Took Shape","Opinion","category","Senior Football Analyst","JC","2026-07-12 13:34:10","7 min read","\u002Fimages\u002Farticles\u002Fmccullum-england-sacking-stokes-retirement-aftermath.webp","Test Cricket, England Cricket","Brendon McCullum pledged commitment to England after the New Zealand series defeat. Days later, he was sacked."]