France’s run at the FIFA World Cup ended with a 2-0 semifinal defeat to Spain in Arlington, Texas, a loss that also closed Didier Deschamps’ 14-year tenure as head coach. Deschamps leaves after 184 games and three major tournament finals — two World Cups and one European Championship — plus the UEFA Nations League, according to ESPN.
France entered the tournament as favorites and held that status until falling behind for the first time in the competition in the semifinal, then failing to recover. The side’s vaunted attacking group produced just 0.04 expected goals in the first 64 minutes, and a Randal Kolo Muani miss came close to denying Deschamps the chance to become only the second coach in history to win two World Cups after also winning one as a player, ESPN reported.
The defeat continued a recent pattern against Spain and coach Luis de la Fuente, who has now beaten Deschamps three times in three years: the 2024 European Championship semifinal, the 2025 Nations League match that finished 5-4 after Spain led 5-1, and Tuesday’s World Cup semifinal, according to ESPN. Spain’s possession game repeatedly controlled the match and limited France’s time on the ball and space to operate.
Deschamps’ approach of keeping tactics relatively simple and relying on player quality has proven successful in the past, including as a player in 1998 alongside Zinedine Zidane, Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry, and as France coach in 2018 and 2022. On Tuesday, however, substitutions such as Manu Koné for Adrien Rabiot and Désiré Doué for Bradley Barcola were judged predictable, and questions were raised about the manager’s loyalty to certain players, notably Rabiot and Michael Olise, who struggled in the match.
After the elimination, many supporters voiced impatience with the end of the Deschamps era and expressed eagerness for a new direction under Zidane, according to ESPN. Whether a change in leadership will unlock more from an evidently talented squad remains an open question.
