Predicted Teams Spain-France: Who will combat Kylian Mbappe and who starts in midfield for Didier Deschamps?

Spain are back in the semi-finals at Euro 2024 three years on from their trip with Luis Enrique, but it is the miserly behemoth of France that stands in their way. Widely considered the side playing the best football in the competition, the contrast could not be greater with Les Bleus, but that will matter little come Sunday.

The match, taking place at the Allianz Arena in Munich at 21:00 CEST, will not feature Dani Carvajal or Robin Le Normand through suspension, or Pedri through injury. France have a clean bill of health, although Didier Deschamps admitted he would have liked an extra day of rest after going to penalties with Portugal.

There does appear to be relative consensus on the Spain line-up Luis de la Fuente will put out. Dani Olmo will replace Pedri, as he did against Germany, while Nacho Fernandez and Jesus Navas will come in for Carvajal as per Marca. That is agreed with Diario AS and MD.

The apparent mismatch is Kylian Mbappe, even if he is at 80% according to de la Fuente, against 38-year-old Jesus Navas. The Spain coach has reiterated his faith in Navas in the media in recent days though, and that he is not the sort of manager to experiment.

There is less consensus on how France will set up. Surprisingly, Antoine Griezmann looks set to be dropped, with Adrien Rabiot partnering Aurelien Tchouameni and Ngolo Kante in midfield. Ousmane Dembele will return to the right side in all three predicted line-ups. There is some debate over whether it will be Randal Kolo Muani or Marcus Thuram leading the line too.

With Olmo in the side, Spain are set to be slightly more incisive but also more direct. De la Fuente will have to try and balance their new-found aggressive attack with not opening the game up for a French side that enjoy the counter-attack more than anything else. He will also rely on Rodri Hernandez and Fabian Ruiz to battle Tchouameni, Rabiot and Kante, depending on how deep he wants to drop Olmo.