While you were sleeping: Rodri powers Spain to World Cup final, Mbappe goes missing

Kylian Mbappe going missing and France struggling to put together a single meaningful passage of play were not among the topics everyone expected to be discussing after the first semi-final of the World Cup. But Spain are not European champions for nothing, and Rodri is not widely regarded as one of the best midfielders in the game without reason. This weekend they’ll have the chance to back up manager Luis de la Fuente’s post-match claim, made in the emotion of the moment no doubt, that they are the “best team in the world”. As the team who presently own that title, Argentina will no doubt have something to say about it. Thomas Tuchel’s men probably have opinions too, and if they do win it will be the fourth World Cup/Euros final in a row – men and women – involving an England team and their European rivals. Discussions over that clash in Atlanta early tomorrow morning can wait, for now here’s how Spain left the pre-tournament favourites chasing shadows in their 2-0 win in Arlington. Defence wins championships Legendary American Football coach Bear Bryant is widely credited with first coining the phrase “offence sells tickets, but defence wins championships”. Spain have now kept six clean sheets in seven matches. And while happily for Spain they have married the two, it was the latter, and the midfield partnership of Rodri and Fabian Ruiz in particular, that set the platform for victory at AT&T Stadium. The pair snuffed out countless French attacks before they even began, and Rodri is finally starting to look like the player who drove Manchester City to glory and was named the 2024 Ballon d’Or winner. An all round defensive display was capped by right back Porro, whose 58th-minute strike put the game beyond France. “It’s a dream come true,” Porro, the man of the match, said. “Truly it was my biggest dream. Very, very happy for the team. From the start to the end we played a great game. We did everything possible today to be able to go through. “We knew we were facing a very, very tough team and we did everything so well. This is a team effort, it’s not about me. I just want to say congratulations to everybody for producing such a great performance. “At the moment I am dead, but we will recover and then give everything for the final.” Captain Anonymous It would be wrong to lay France’s woes at the feet of one man, given the entire team had an off day, but Kylian Mbappe was conspicuous by his absence for most of his team’s defeat. The man with the second most goals in World Cup history and still one of the contenders for the golden boot title he won four years ago in Qatar had little to no impact up front. Mbappe had exactly three shots all game, none of which were on target, and touched the ball fewer than 20 times, playing a total of 16 passes in 90-plus minutes of football. Equally anonymous were the previously threatening pair of Bradley Barcola and Ousmane Dembele. Winners in 2018 and finalists in 2022, France were expected to end manager Didier Deschamps’ 14-year reign in New Jersey, now his time will end with the third-place game in Miami. “Of course, there is a lot of disappointment,” Deschamps said immediately afterwards. “The fact that we failed to reproduce the attacking and technical quality we had shown until now is partly our fault, but Spain also deserve credit for preventing us from doing so.” Deschamps said the players had been devastated in the dressing room but refused to dismiss the progress they had made during the tournament. “The disappointment is immense,” he said. “We were too weak in attack, but there were mistakes. We have to accept it. We tried everything but Spain showed that they are playing at a different level.” “We tried, we failed, it just wasn’t enough.” Sportainment Matches at this World Cup have already lasted far longer than necessary with the hated hydration breaks, and now officials want to stretch the half-time in Sunday’s final to almost 30 minutes. An 11-minute Super Bowl-style interruption, starring the likes of Madonna, Justin Bieber and Coldplay, is in the works for MetLife Stadium. While Fifa have said the break should be about 20 minutes, there are suggestions the show could come on top of the traditional 15 minute break allotted to players. Half-time of last year’s Club World Cup final, also organised by Fifa and held in New Jersey, lasted a total of 24 minutes due to a performance featuring Coldplay, J Balvin, Doja Cat, Tems and Emmanuel Kelly. The World Cup final will kick off at 3pm local time (23am in Hong Kong) and there will be a closing ceremony starting at 1.30pm. Tom Cruise, Laura Pausini, Nicole Scherzinger, Robbie Williams and IShowSpeed are set to perform as part of the ceremony, with Jennifer Hudson singing the United States’ national anthem.

While you were sleeping: Rodri powers Spain to World Cup final, Mbappe goes missing

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Spain prove the adage that defence wins championships, while a Super Bowl-style show could stretch half-time at the final to almost 30 minutes

Defence wins championships

Spain prove the adage that defence wins championships, while a Super Bowl-style show could stretch half-time at the final to almost 30 minutes