Spain vs France LIVE: Nations League result, final score and reaction tonight
Follow all the post-match fallout live from the San Siro in Milan
France won the second ever edition of the Nations League on Sunday evening, coming from behind to beat Spain 2-1 at the San Siro in Milan.
Following Portugal’s triumph against the Netherlands in the inaugural final of the competition in 2019, another heavyweight clash decided this year’s winners, and both the Spanish and French certainly earned their spots in the showpiece match. On Wednesday night, Spain ended the remarkable unbeaten run of European champions Italy for a 2-1 win to avenge their defeat in this summer’s Euro 2020 semi-finals, while France battled from two goals down to overcome Belgium 3-2 in the last minute on Thursday.
Didier Deschamps’ side had to produce another comeback here, too, with Oyarzabal opening the scoring for Spain in the 64th minute, just seconds after Theo Hernandez had hit the crossbar for Les Bleus. The end-to-end action immediately continued, with Karim Benzema curling a stunning finish past Unai Simon from the edge of the Spain box to draw France level. In the 80th minute, Kylian Mbappe sealed the victory for the reigning world champions, a VAR check ruling that the Paris Saint-Germain forward was not offside – despite what many observers thought.
Follow all the fallout from the 2021 Nations League final between Spain and France, below, and read the full match report here.
GOAL! Spain 1-0 France (Oyarzabal 64’)
Incredible! Less than 60 seconds after France hit the bar at one end, Spain go down the other and take the lead through Oyarzabal!
Spain 0-0 France
62 mins: France are trying to swarm Busquets as much as possible, particularly through Griezmann who gets into a tangle with the midfielder on the halfway line.
Spain 0-0 France
60 mins: Yeremi is on, replacing Sarabia. Could Torres move into the middle now with Yeremi back out on the right wing?
Spain 0-0 France
59 mins: There were a couple of moments of real quality in midfield there between Gavi and Busquets. They’re coming under so much pressure from the French press but are able to play themselves out of tight situations.
Yeremi Pino looks like he is about to come on for Spain, following his impressive display off the bench against Italy.
Spain 0-0 France
56 mins: Alonso plays a lovely pass into the box and finds Gavi’s diagonal run. The 17-year-old gets to the ball ahead of Tchouameni before going down under his challenge. Spain appeal for a penalty but it’s quickly waved away. Tchouameni won the ball - and it was an excellent challenge.
Spain 0-0 France
55 mins: Kounde is the latest to go into the book for a late tackle on Busquets. Just before that, Pogba slid in for a 50-50 tackle when the ball broke loose in midfield. He won possession, and he had to otherwise he could have been off!
Spain 0-0 France
54 mins: This is heating up now! This time France were able to break forward with space ahead of them. Pavard had time to slip in Mbappe, and it took a brilliant recovering tackle from Alonso to deny him.
Spain 0-0 France
53 mins: Kounde gets caught in possession and suddenly Spain break through Sarabia. His ball from the left misses both Torres and Oyarzabal and France clear!
Spain 0-0 France
49 mins: Pogba comes under pressure from Rodri when on the ball inside his box and is able to draw the foul. He then turns and demands why Pavard and his other team-mates weren’t making themselves available. Deschamps asks for calm, as Pogba genuinely looked furious about the lack of help given to him.
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