Three days after a 2-0 semifinal loss that ended France’s World Cup, Ibrahima Konaté sat in front of reporters and did something a lot of beaten competitors can’t bring themselves to do: he gave the other side full credit.
“We came up against a Spanish team that were better,” the 27-year-old defender said Friday, on the eve of France’s third-place match against England. No hedging, no what-ifs about the referee or the weather or a bad bounce. The film doesn’t lie, and Konaté had watched enough of it by now to know what he was looking at.
He went further, cataloging what is now a three-match losing streak against Spain. At Euro 2024, France fell to La Roja. In the Nations League, same story. And in Tuesday’s semifinal, with Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams both fully fit, Spain controlled the match from whistle to whistle. “Three straight losses — that hurts, and as a competitor, we can’t accept it,” Konaté said. “But in the last match, they were better than us.”
France arrived at the semifinals with 16 goals in six games and left with zero on the night. Spain’s defense — which has conceded exactly one goal all tournament, a Charles De Ketelaere strike for Belgium — suffocated Les Bleus the way a Cover-2 defense swallows a running game. Konaté, who spent the tournament as a substitute and recently joined Real Madrid, pushed back on the notion that Spain had gotten into France’s heads psychologically. The problem was simpler than that. They were just better.
Now France faces England on Saturday in a third-place match neither team wanted to be in — England having fallen 2-1 to Argentina in the other semifinal. Konaté called it important for France to “learn and understand” the reasons behind the setbacks, though he admitted Tuesday’s defeat was easy enough to explain.
Meanwhile, Spain turns its attention to Sunday’s final against Argentina in East Rutherford, New Jersey (3 p.m. ET, Fox). Argentina is chasing a second consecutive World Cup title and its fourth overall. Spain is chasing its second, and something no nation has ever done: holding the men’s and women’s World Cup trophies at the same time. Spain’s women won the 2023 World Cup, and the men’s last title came in 2010.
The final carries a generational subplot. Lionel Messi, 39, is playing in his last World Cup. Lamine Yamal, 19, is playing in what could be the first of many. The widely circulated photo of a young Messi holding infant Yamal has become the tournament’s unofficial image of torch-passing — though Sunday will decide whether that torch actually changes hands.
FIFA, in a nod to American sports tradition, will award championship rings to the winning team for the first time. The winner also collects $50 million in prize money; the runner-up takes home $33 million.
Argentina has lived dangerously all knockout round — all four of its game-winning goals in the knockouts came in second-half stoppage time or extra time. Spain has been the opposite: methodical, defensively airtight, rarely threatened. One team keeps finding ways. The other never needs to.
Konaté, for his part, insisted France will be ready for the next fight. “There will be other opportunities,” he said. But on this particular Sunday, the opportunity belongs to someone else.
Sources:
- Yahoo Sports — ‘Spain were better’ – Ibrahima Konaté on France’s loss
- Yahoo Sports — World Cup 2026: What you need to know about Spain vs. Argentina
- NPR — Spain could make World Cup history: men’s and women’s trophies back-to-back
- Yahoo Sports — World Cup prize money 2026
- Yahoo Sports — Argentina and Spain will play for the World Cup trophy and rings