The second semi-final of the UEFA Nations League season takes place out in Stuttgart on Thursday night when for the second summer in a row Spain take on France for a place in a final of a European competition.
The pair met in the last four of Euro 2024 a year ago which Spain won en route to winning the tournament and ‘La Roja’ will be looking for a repeat of that. France, buoyed by their domestic champions winning the Champions League at the weekend, will be looking to reverse the tide.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on Amazon Prime Video in the UK with their build-up getting underway at 7.45pm ahead of the 8pm kick off in Germany.
Spain
The European champions will be looking to maintain their dominance as they build up towards the World Cup in a year from now. Spain will go there as one of the favourites to regain the global crown given the quality that they showed in Germany 12 months ago where they took care of the host nation, France and England on their way to the title. That was a very young squad which won Euro 2024 and the feeling is it is only going to get better which is a scary thought for the rest.
This is a Spanish side who have been involved in some high scoring encounters in this competition so they are transitioning away from the team who suck the life out of teams with possession with little end product. Whether that is an intention or has just happened by the nature of the competition only they will know but it makes them a much better watch and if their star players come to the party here the signs are they will be tough to stop from here.
France
French football is on a bit of a high at the minute with PSG having won the Champions League at the weekend and the national team will be hoping that the spirit of that success carries over to this match and gives them an extra pep in their step as they look to make the final of another competition under Didier Deschamps. France gave as good as they got in that semi-final a year ago but may need a little more if they are going to get their revenge here.
The French have had an up and down route to this semi-final. They were 2-0 down after the first leg of their quarter final but came good when it mattered to progress on penalties. There is no doubt that there are goals in this side but they have been guilty of underperforming in front of goal too often over the last 12 months. They can’t afford that here because there is a vulnerable look about their defence with some key men missing.
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Team News
Spain have a few injuries in their squad with the likes of Dani Carvajal, Rodri and Ferran Torres unavailable for Luis de la Fuente. All eyes will be on the sensational Lamine Yamal to see if he can light up another game in a Spain shirt.
Didier Deschamps has a bit of a crisis at the back with Jules Kounde, William Saliba and Dayot Upamecano all out with injury. The French boss will need to decide how many of his Champions League winning quintet to start.
Betting
I mentioned when I previewed the opening semi-final of this campaign on Wednesday how these semi-finals tend to be high scoring with teams looking to go after the prize rather than wait for it to come to them. It helps that it is usually the best of the best who are on show and that is certainly the case here so I see no reason why this one will go against that trend and as such over 2.5 goals is the play for me in this second game.
It would have been anyway with the attacking players on show but France might have to fight fire with fire here when you consider the big names that they have missing at the back for them. While they look light at the back, this is still a squad which boasts the talents of Kylian Mbappe, Michael Olise, Randal Kolo Muani, Ousmane Dembele, Desire Doue, Marcus Thuram and Bradley Barcola to be selected from so there is no shortage of attacking talent for France to work with. Spain are flourishing with attacking stars too so much like in their semi-final a year ago, I expect to see this one going over 2.5 goals too.
Tips
Back Over 2.5 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
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