Spain and goalkeeper Unai Simon post another shutout to reach the WC final

Spain goalkeeper Unai Simon sprinted off his line to beat a charging Kylian Mbappe to the ball with France desperately seeking a goal in the World Cup semifinals.

While Simon managed to get there first and head the ball away, he suddenly had the World Cup’s co-scoring leader between him and the net with France forward Desire Doue trying to get control of the ball.

Even in that rare moment of chaos late in the match, the structured Spanish defense and the standout keeper again didn’t allow a goal.

Spain ended up beating France 2-0 on Tuesday to advance to the World Cup final, 16 years after winning the title the only other time the team made it that far at the tournament. It was the record sixth shutout for Spain at this year’s expanded 48-team World Cup.

After the ball went directly to Doue off Simon’s header, the keeper frantically sprinted back. Simon managed to turn his body to get his back to the net and made a leaping, no-hands deflection on the edge of the area. He then needed several strides before finally being able to fall on the ball. The latest shutout for Simon and Spain came against FIFA’s top-ranked team, which had Mbappe coming into the match with 20 goals in his 20 World Cup games. The France captain was the Golden Boot winner in 2022, and his eight goals in this year’s tournament are even with Argentina great Lionel Messi, the all-time leader with 21.

“We are very happy with the work that the team has done. Today we knew it would be a very complicated game with spectacular players, but I think we have them, too,” Spain defender Pau Cubarsi said in translated remarks. “We are a great family. We have helped each other for 90 minutes, we have pressed as never before.” Mbappe had only three shots on Tuesday, none of them on target. France created no major scoring threats while missing out on a chance to become only the third team to reach three consecutive World Cup finals.

“Spain has been able to defend well. I’ve watched all of their matches, and today they’ve done it very well,” France coach Didier Deschamps said. “They’ve closed out all the spaces and also we’ve made some technical mistakes. So it is difficult to create problems when the technical level is below standard, especially compared to previous matches.”

The only goal Simon has allowed in this tournament was Belgium’s equalizer in the 41st minute of Spain’s 2-1 quarterfinal victory. That snapped his World Cup record of 650 scoreless minutes. The semifinal match on Tuesday came at the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, where eight days earlier, in a round of 16 match, Spain beat Portugal 1-0 for its record sixth consecutive World Cup match not allowing a goal. That included Simon stopping two shots by 41-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo, who was playing in the last of his six World Cups.

That World Cup shutout streak for Spain broke a tie with Italy (1990) and Switzerland (2006-10). It began with a 0-0 draw in the round of 16 in 2022, when Morocco advanced after a penalty shootout, and included a surprising scoreless draw against Cape Verde this year. Simon had surpassed the previous record of 517 consecutive scoreless minutes during a 3-0 blanking of Austria to open the knockout round.