Spain vs. France Euro 2024 semifinal PREVIEW! Will Deschamps make some changes? | ESPN FC

Spain vs. France Euro 2024 semifinal PREVIEW! Will Deschamps make some changes? | ESPN FC

all right Jules let’s continue with this trans Portugal then we’re going to cyle back to Spain German then we’re going to try to put on our our Stuart robson’s hats and uh and try to preview how the semi-final might go yeah I have to start with this and look I I am not picking on Forest Gump stroke DD Edition Forest Gump you said yeah what’s Forest Gump Forest Gump but why why they show Forest Gump so Forest Gump is somebody who on you you know the Forest Gump no I know who Forest Gump is I can’t see the link between Forest Gump and D is when you keep advancing without having any clue what the hell’s going on what because honestly in this Des has no clue okay well no please let’s go through the dis Clues right so I’ll just ask you some questions you be You’ be the judge advocate for you for for for for desam right okay so let’s start with I need to make a change up front so he’s already made the change where he’s decided that I need more defensive midfielders because just because I like to be even more defensive than I have been despite the fact that they’re not scoring any goals from open play or whatever I’m not going to bore you with a stat because I think it’s silly but I actually I will two own goals one penalty yeah this is the reality for five games of football from probably the most talented team of the tournament right so your solution then is to put on more defensive midfielders more more than when more than when well more than for example when you had um you played as many defensive midfielders against Portugal and in Belgium the round before right but not in the group stage right the last in in the group stage you had two defensive midfielders you had Griezmann you had uh tram mbappe and Des right sorry not Des d right you had four attacking players right then your solution now is oh let me add sh many let me take out Deele right and then on top of that but plus obviously kaming for rabio when he suspended right and then on top of that let me take out tram who’s good and put on colum who’s not good right but runs around even more than teram right yeah and I’m just thinking to myself what would you keep moving further and further back on the pitch and the solution here the impact as I see it is when Antoine Griezmann has a bad game as he did in this game when he’s not influencing thing and Griezmann has basically becomes your sole source of creativity not because the players around him can’t do it because many of them can but because you’ve taken them all off and replaced them with other people and then instructing them to just defend and keep the ball am I reading this incorrectly no no he tried something with Griezmann as a 10 you know in a diamond Midfield that didn’t work but because you didn’t play any Wingers you’re right the creativity had to come from there or maybe one of the fullbacks but this is more look at the impact demele had when he came on all of debele comes on he scares the pants off you and you know people say oh dembele end product can’t finish I don’t really care he demb is so disruptive when he comes on that everybody else goes and and craps themselves I don’t know if there is an impact sub you can make in the world but then don’t have him as an impact sub have him start because he’s better than yeah yeah no no I I agree I agree I agree with you I think I think he should have started certainly a half time he was crying out for him or barola or K I don’t know whoever one of those kind of profile because I’m assuming isn’t fit cuz I haven’t seen the guy no no he’s fit he’s just he’s just yeah I mean he went back to with his wife for the birth of the baby and but he came back he only left for like two days like for then did so so yeah but he chose something different he wanted a very narrow block against Portugal and yeah no so but where I disagree with you in the sense that he has a clue this is what he wants this is his style but he will always go for the more defensive approach than for anything else with the ball so when Griezmann played wide against Belgium that was simply to help kund with with the with defending on doku so the priority was clearly the defensive strength more than anything else with the ball and Griezmann on the right I don’t really care will he be involved with the ball not so much but it doesn’t matter because without the ball it’s going to help us so much this is my problem and look we we we Slaughter G Southgate for this we will continue to slaughter him and I’m not saying France have been as bad as England in this tournament however that brand of football I know France won there’s a reason why football teams do not play this way and what football teams with better players is because over time it doesn’t work it can work over a short period in a tournament and it has worked for France yeah but what I don’t understand is unlike Southgate who never achieved much as a club manager damp actually did achieve things as a club manager years ago right he delivered the title was it at Mar right the first title in in a million years right he didn’t necessarily play this play like this brand of football so he shows that was always called pragmatic though but you can be pragmatic but he’s shown that he’s got that side of him too and when you look at this and you say look we came so close to getting knocked out against Belgium right so what what you make a face but yes where was the closeness again what was the result One n but that was not close to being knocked out it was one goal one goal it’s not like Slovakia England for example they were not in they were not behind in the 94th minute you’re playing Belgium yeah yeah you’re playing Belgium right Belgium who do not have the players I don’t want to play the combined game again Vis Belgium right but that should be a warning that should be a warning that tells you oh look one mistake and we’re out what can I do to actually create more chances to use the tools that I have and he doesn’t do that in this game against Portugal do don’t he does use the tools that he has this is the team this is you win trophies like this with your defense not with anything else not with beautiful football not with super attacking style nobody with super attacking style not even Argentina with Messi they are three defense midfielders as well we’re talking about Argentina Argentina Argentina don’t have the Argentina do not have the players France has okay that’s not the that’s not the point that’s not the point they were first and foremost solid and every team that wins Big tournaments are solid more than anything else yeah over seven games after the fact everybody looks solid no team that’s going to go win this is this is one of those toies yours this is one of those and no team that goes and wins a tournament afterwards you’re going to say well they didn’t look solid no of course not the team that they won the tournament they will always come back but the question is ultimately do you create more than what you concede and we saw in the Portugal game I think very obviously Portugal had the bulk of the better chances it was a lot closer despite the fact Portugal had a 41y old playing at Center back yeah yeah that France has I mean I you know who the French players are I don’t need to to to to go and to go and list them um you know this idea that I need all these defensive midfielders because what I think s Ben can’t handle 39-year-old chis on their own the one thing the one area actually was one pregame and I got I don’t one troll back but we talked about Rafael Le against kund now I think it’s safe to say that is where France really really struggled Rafael played a big game there yeah he was good but other than that it’s still Rafael Le you say Rafael I say dembele I say mbappe you know there’s so many options and yeah this does not concern you I I just I just don’t understand this what what concerning me that we don’t score goals yeah that’s a problem the XG is nine in this tournament they’ scored three none of them from from them what was XG against Portugal 1.2 and portugals 1.4 he was 1.7 but okay 1.7 I don’t but but I don’t care what are you talking to me about XG yes Portugal had more chances they could have scored go they didn’t score goals we won on penalties right like France will always be defensive it will always be the style of the show this is the DNA I don’t like it I’m give up on this I’ll make one more point I’m fine with you being defensive it’s almost like you said I can’t wait to see them playing differently they’re never going to play differently so why are we having this the reason you need to play differently I think but won listen listen if you’re going to play defensively well I’m I’m getting my licks in before after he gets knocked out and screws the pooch against Spain because you know the reason you play defensively if you’re going to say we’re going to play defensively or whatever then you do not concede chances then you do not uh struggle the way you do then you’re effective on the counter and you pump teams on the counter whatever right which I presume is what he’s he’s hoping to do that’s not what happens they play defensively when again another example right you can play defensively and you figure well Killian’s going to have all the space to run into how many times was Killian released in this game here you have arguably he’s not he’s not fit yeah he’s clearly there’s clearly a problem so it’s Killian’s lack of Fitness it’s not a system which doesn’t deliver him the ball in transition himself he doesn’t run in behind behind cuz it doesn’t like the ball is not going to come that’s not how they play but he’s it’s clearly not the mask is a problem maybe an excuse I don’t know there’s clearly something wrong there’s clearly something wrong with him as in in the sense that he’s not at his best right now so let’s hope he can be at his best for the next game at least moving on to your opponent Spain and Germany um nagas man made the changes has made the changes throughout the tournament yeah unlike other coaches did they was he Vindicated in this game I thought he made a mistake with the Sun instead of vers starts I said I thought vers should start and he had such a big impact after coming on at halftime where was completely I thought Anonymous in that first half so I think he got this one wrong then after that to be fair they came back into the game strongly once Dan almost scored that goal especially later when I thought de la fente maybe a bit too early took out all his players because the second unit of Spain is obviously not as good as the first one and I know Marino scon is a great header but you felt the difference once the best player of the Spain team came off and the others came on and then Germany went to I thought he did that because he thought well part of it there’s this archetype about Spanish players compared to German players you know not having the same levels of stamina and blah blah blah which I don’t know may or may not be true I think it’s kind of an old w still but then again he’s the coach he can see right he’s got people who tell him um I think that’s a big part of the reason why he did that and I also do think that there’s a belief that you know Miko may play for rodad and whatever and you know he may have failed to step up when he was younger but qualitatively there isn’t necessarily this enormous gap between sa milino and Fabian Ruiz maybe not I thought more about Fon Torres and oaza and players like that who don’t who don’t the ball up for example like uh like even like lamin would do or Morata I would I would not have changed so much that’s all oh I got no issue F thought it was a bit frustrating um that much malign defense that I kept keep poking fun of um again I don’t think they were great again but they they did generally get the job done now your friend Robin suspended for the final yeah Danny Carvajal out um it’s funny pedri out obviously as and pedri obviously out too so those are three pieces you need to replace actually before we talk about how to replac the Don Kad when he got sent off right part of me and I like kahal part of me says all right dude you know you’ve already picked up a yellow so you know you’re going to miss the next game yeah was that necessary cuz I’m assuming he’s going to miss the final now too right he to one I think I thought he was one MB okay then can I say something for a foul like that yeah it’s a nasty foul Nast I think I think the tournament’s over it’s not that it’s dangerous necessarily it’s just that it’s goes so far against the spirit of the game that kind of tactical foul I thought musala was really kind not with almost retaliating not as in not go and punch him and get of himself but like yeah I thought it was such bad K was on my team I would want him to do that every day of the week but as a neutral I’m like I don’t need this H not nice so what do we how actually let’s try to preview from on on the France side we what changes do we expect to the 11 ravio is going to come back come come back in obviously and then com goes out yeah so again we go back to let’s take off the good player and put it on the rabio okay all right that’s fine that’s what that’s your opinion the UN rabio who’s unemployed right now yeah they thinks that rabio a game like this is better than kaminga so I don’t know and then I think he thinks this in every game because he always starts rabio when he’s available yeah he loves rabio I think rabio has a lot of qualities too you know it’s not just Kam I don’t think the gap between them two is okay more interestingly yeah I think they’re going to drop Griezmann it’s just they’ve tried in different positions different system it hasn’t worked for him I think he’s doesn’t have the legs anymore He’s 33 I think this could be his last competition too for France impact sub Griezmann then but then we saw against Poland coming off the bench there was no impact I’m not even sure it can be an impact have anymore but we would have to see the scenario of the game and I think for Antoine not starting a game like this against Spain which is obviously his he Spain more time he’s lived more in Spain than in France in his life it it would be really hurtful so he might not drop him but if it looks like his first idea is maybe to drop him and go back to the 433 with either demele and barola and kilan Central or certainly demele there mbapp on the left and then probably tram as a nine no more Callum for now no morea but to be fair you say that but against Portugal he had a big big chance you know so which he didn’t take he didn’t take but neither did christano vitina or Bruno and they better players than Kon so um I thought vitina had a really good game Nuno mes all these players who I generally don’t like I’m saying nice things about P know but you’re right they were good but then Nuno against dembele struggled as soon as demele came on I think everybody would struggle against form but he’s in that kind of form um and for Spain weas right back Nao Center back that’s a lot of age coming on thereo instead of pedri which is a different profile maybe doesn’t press as efficiently but brings you something else is that so automatic to Daniel Mo for pedri in this one because I’m just wondering against France would I want maybe another passer in there there rather than Danny Almo yeah maybe although playing between the lines they are they will have a lot of the ball they will have 60% 65% of the ball easily so so maybe you need a bit of you need somebody who can play between the line instead of having maybe a passer but if you but if if I’m playing three defensive Midfield there three very good ones three very athletic ones very smart ones who fill a lot of space yeah I’m just wondering if maybe I’m not better off with another passer and trying to play more of a patient possession rather than having Dano in that in that role yeah maybe although I think the the patient buildup would suit France because they would be so well organized medium block they would have to move much so I would rather somebody between the lines to be fair but we see and Dani Mo replace pedre I know it’s a different game different opposition but it looks like yeah this is the the kind of substitute um who is more options to change things off the bench we love yabel together far and Torres not so much yeah that it’s a good point actually I don’t know I there might be to be more depth in the French Squad there’s definitely more depth of talent I do kind of feel DEA is more likely to make changes like if it’s nail nail with an hour gone I feel like de is more likely to make changes to win the game whereas if whereas Des shamp is more likely to make the changes either to maintain because the level has dropped definitely or or obviously if they fall behind send on the I think the best would be I guess an early Spain goal because the France I think the French would be so happy with keeping the nil nil being well organized and just waiting for that moment that will not like undoubtably come at some point and then go and try to to be efficient and punish them so an early goal from Spain then he will opens things up massively and then the game will be better otherwise it would be attack with defense and I’m not sure that’s pretty you know who we love predictions and percentages so I will ask you a prediction I think what most people really care about percent chance we see Olivia juru start or play at some point well it depend it will only depend on the I know I don’t but I will see I want to see him on the pitch I just want to see him and that was SW could be by the way his last cab you know exactly exactly so let’s see let’s see all right we’re not going to predict who wins the game because these predictions are stupid we told you how we think the game’s going to go in the end it’s a low-scoring game deal with it there’s a lot of randomness [Music]

ESPN FC’s Julien Laurens joins Gab Marcotti on the Gab & Juls Show to preview the Euro 2024 semifinal between Spain and France.

0:00 Portugal vs. France recap
9:17 Spain vs. Germany recap
12:28 Spain vs. France semifinal preview

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