France's hopes of reaching the World Cup final for the third time in a row evaporated after they lost 0-2 to Spain in the 2026 World Cup semi-final, in a match that saw a number of records fall.
Spain ended France's journey towards the title, after dealing them one of the toughest blows in major tournaments during Deschamps' era, to secure a place in the final, where they await the winner of the England-Argentina match, while the French team will play the third-place match in search of finishing the tournament on the podium.
This loss comes amid expectations that Deschamps will leave his position as head coach of the French national team after the end of the World Cup, with French football legend Zinedine Zidane close to taking over the technical responsibility from him.
According to Opta statistics, France's historic run in the World Cup knockout stages came to an end, after suffering their first defeat since losing to Germany in the quarter-finals of the 2014 World Cup, ending a run of 11 consecutive matches without a loss in the decisive stages of the tournament.
11 - France and Perdu are the first match in the direct elimination match in the Monday Cup in the final quarter of 2014 against the Allemagne (0-1), which ended in one of the Series 11 matches of the series without defeat.
For its part, the Stats Foot network confirmed that France's exit from the semi-finals came for the first time since the 1986 edition, when they bid farewell to the tournament after losing to West Germany by a score of 2-0.
The network added that the loss to Spain is the heaviest for France in a major tournament during Deschamps' era, and it is also the first time the team has lost by a two-goal margin in a major tournament since falling to Spain by the same score in the quarter-finals of Euro 2012.
The semi-final loss to Spain also became France's biggest defeat in the knockout stages of the World Cup since facing West Germany in 1986.
The negative numbers did not stop there, as “Statsfoot” revealed that the French national team failed to score for the first time since their match against Croatia in March 2025.
Spain also ended another streak for France, after "Les Bleus" tasted defeat for the first time since their 5-4 loss to the same Spanish team in the semi-finals of the European Nations League in 2015.
A painful exit for France, but it represents the end of a golden era during which Deschamps led the team to the 2018 World Cup title and the runner-up position in the 2022 World Cup, before a new era is expected to begin under the leadership of Zidane.
