Spain overcame an early deficit to beat France and reach the final of Euro 2024 as Lamine Yamal became the youngest scorer in European Championship history.<\/p>\n
Yamal \u2013 at the tender age of 16 years and 362 days \u2013 struck a stunning equaliser and Dani Olmo quickly added what turned out to be the winner as Spain recovered from Randal Kolo Muani\u2019s header to win 2-1 and book a date with England or the Netherlands in Sunday\u2019s final.<\/p>\n
Kolo Muani had headed France in front from close range but Les Bleus were upstaged by the Barcelona teenager, who turns 17 on Saturday.<\/p>\n
It was a moment to cherish as Yamal jinked to his left then moved to his right, allowing space back on his left foot to beat Mike Maignan from 25 yards with a precise curling shot that went in off a post.<\/p>\n
Spain\u2019s victory saw them become the first side to win six consecutive games at the Euros without the need for penalties.<\/p>\n
Yamal \u2013 beating Pele\u2019s record as the youngest player to feature in a major tournament semi-final \u2013 posted early notice of his threat with a pinpoint fifth-minute cross that Fabian Ruiz headed over from inside the six-yard box.
\nOn the same flank, France\u2019s captain and talisman Kylian Mbappe was more recognisable both with and without the ball at his feet.<\/p>\n
Mbappe had dispensed with the mask he had worn since breaking his nose during France\u2019s opening win over Austria.<\/p>\n
France had struggled for fluency during the tournament with Mbappe seemingly hampered by the mask but this was a different story as stand-in 38-year-old full-back Jesus Navas had a difficult time early on.<\/p>\n
Nine minutes had elapsed when Mbappe clipped in a cross that Kolo Muani met to become the first France player to score in open play at Euro 2024.<\/p>\n
Mbappe went close again with a blocked effort, but Yamal\u2019s brilliance levelled the score after 21 minutes and Spain were soon ahead.<\/p>\n
Olmo\u2019s delicious touch took him past Aurelien Tchouameni and Jules Kounde could not keep out the Spaniard\u2019s powerful shot as the defender backtracked towards his own goal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Spain overcame an early deficit to beat France and reach the final of Euro 2024 as Lamine Yamal became the youngest scorer in European Championship history. Yamal \u2013 at the tender age of 16 years and 362 days \u2013 struck a stunning equaliser and Dani Olmo quickly added what turned out to be the winner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":38273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[1171],"class_list":["post-38270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-yamal"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38270"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38275,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38270\/revisions\/38275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}