Spain v France LIVE: Latest team news and build-up ahead of Euro 2024 semi-final

The superstar forward was left covered in blood after suffering the brutal injury when his face collided into the shoulder of Austria defender Kevin Danso, later leaving the stadium in an ambulance.

Subsequent tests confirmed Mbappe did not require immediate surgeryand he returned to training two days later while sporting a protective covering in the colours of the French flag, alleviating concerns that he would be ruled out of the tournament.

Slavko Vincic will referee the first semi-final of Euro 2024 between Spain and France in Munich on Tuesday night.

The experienced Slovenian official, 44, became a Fifa-listed referee in 2010 and recently refereed the 2024 Champions League final between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund at Wembley.

Vinčič’s first tournament was Euro 2012, where he attended as an assistant, and he first took charge at a major international tournament during Euro 2020, when he refereed two group-stage games and the quarter-final between Italy and Belgium.

The generation gap on Spain’s right flank has just grown bigger. Lamine Yamal has spent the tournament passing his school exams and footballing tests, operating in front of a man twice his age, in Dani Carvajal. Yet the six-time Champions League winner was suspended for the Euro 2024semi-final even before he brought his quarter-final to a slightly premature end, rugby-tackling Jamal Musiala to collect his second yellow card deep into extra time.

And so the reserve right-back, who will presumably be parachuted in to face France, whose role will involve racing Kylian Mbappe, is a player who had won the Uefa Cup twice before Yamal was born. One Jesus turned water into wine. The temptation is to think that another may need a still greater miracle to outsprint Mbappe. Jesus Navas, after all, is closer in age to perennial early 90s Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain than he is to Yamal.

But, 21 seasons into his senior career, Navas has a certain timelessness.There are few 38-year-olds whose attributes begin with speed, but his arguably do. He has retained a slim physique that suggests he has zero per cent body fat. As times have changed, Navas hasn’t. He has moved from right wing to right-back yet remains essentially the same.

Two of the three players to score for France in Euro 2024 are out of Euro 2024. One no longer plays international football at all. And one single goal from a French player? Well, that was a penalty.

It puts France two games away from an extraordinary achievement: from winning the European Championships without any of their team mustering a goal in open play. It sounds like a feat that the Greece side in 2004 – limited in ability, clean-sheet specialists and set-piece experts – could have pulled off.

Not France, who scored four and three in the last two World Cup finals respectively; who have Kylian Mbappe, potentially the best player in the world for the next few years and, in time, the best in the World Cup’s history; who have a galaxy of attacking talent. But maybe it would be the definitive Didier Deschamps triumph, doing so in his own very particular way.

France are looking to reach their fourth Euros final (1984, 2000 and 2016) but only the second not played on French soil (Euro 2000 in the Netherlands).

Spain, meanwhile, are looking to reach their fifth final, with only Germany playing in more (six). The Spaniards have progressed from four of five semi-finals, but lost on penalties to eventual winners Italy at this stage at Euro 2020.

Ahead of the tournament France were placed in Group D alongside Poland, Austria and the Netherlands in what many spectators named ‘the group of death’. It was undoubtably the most tricky group to qualify from even if Les Bleus made things harder for themselves:

Group Stages

France 1-0 Austria – Unsure how Austria would go, France played it safe as Ralf Rangnick’s men proved they were here to compete. Max Wober’s unfortunate own goal secured three crucial points for Didier Deschamps men.

France 0-0 Netherlands – In what could possibly end up being a preview of the Euro 2024 final, a Kylian Mbappe-less France played out a stalemate with the Dutch.

France 1-1 Poland – Needing to avoid defeat to guarantee qualification for the knockout rounds Mbappe opened the scoring from the penalty spot but a Robert Lewandowski penalty brought Poland an equaliser. It’s the only goal France have conceded thus far.

France 1-0 Belgium – After finished behind Austria in Group D, France now had to face Belgium. This time it was a Jan Vertonghen own goal which sent them through.

Quarter-final

France 0-0 Portugal (5-3 on penalties) – Billed as Mbappe vs Ronaldo this knockout round tie didn’t live up to the hype. A goalless draw after 120 minutes took the match to a shootout where the French scored a perfect five and advanced.

Despite criticism of the way they’ve played so far, Didier Deschamps’s France are a solid team who have not really looked under much threat defensively.

In comparison to England, who have also had the ‘boring’ moniker thrown their way, France have kept four clean sheets in their five matches so far while the Three Lions have conceded four goals in the same time.

Les Bleus are also aiming for a fourth major tournament final in the last eight years, after reaching the Euro 2016 showpiece and headline match of both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

That’s an incredible record which shows how experienced this group is at reaching the latter ends of tournaments something their opponents tonight lack.

“We’re in the semi-finals and it’s something we shouldn’t take for granted, even if we may be used to it recently,” said Deschamps after the quarter-final versus Portugal. “Now we go to win it.”

Six and out. Cristiano Ronaldo’s sixth and last European Championships came to an end as Portugal paid for an impotence that stemmed from affording their captain privileged status. They went out on penalties, Joao Felix rolling his spot kick against the foot of the post as everyone else scored, but after a second successive stalemate, after 364 minutes without scoring.

Here’s a look at the French team going through their training sessions ahead of tonight’s crucial semi-final clash in Munich: