De la Fuente calms Spain after Yamal scare post-France win

Spain walked off the pitch in Hamburg with France beaten, a World Cup final secured, and one nagging worry: Lamine Yamal limping through parts of the night.

By the time Luis de la Fuente sat down in the press room, that concern had largely evaporated.

Yamal scare eased, Porro a doubt

The Spain coach moved quickly to reassure a country already dreaming of Sunday’s final. The Barcelona teenager, who had been seen hobbling at different stages of the 2-0 semi-final victory, has avoided serious damage according to the early medical reports.

“Lamine doesn't have anything that I know of. I've spoken with the doctors now,” De la Fuente said, easing fears around the player who has come to symbolise this new Spain.

The more immediate fitness question hangs over Pedro Porro. The Tottenham defender, who started again on the right, was withdrawn in the 85th minute and replaced by Marcos Llorente. This was not a tactical tweak but a physical red flag.

“Pedro Porro seems to have overuse injuries, but we'll see tomorrow,” De la Fuente explained. Spain’s staff will now monitor a muscle strain that could yet shape their plans for the final.

This isn't by chance

If the injury bulletin brought relief, the coach’s assessment of his team carried something else: conviction. Spain had just knocked out the 2018 world champions with authority, and De la Fuente was in no mood to dress it up as fortune.

He spoke with obvious pride about a side that has grown with each game, both with and without the ball, and about a footballing culture that continues to churn out players who understand the game at a rare level.

“I'm surprised by what this team is capable of, and the room for improvement is endless,” he said. “This isn't by chance: it's talent, hard work, sacrifice, perseverance, and we knew we had to keep improving little by little throughout the tournament.”

There was even a hint of irritation that Spain had not been perfect from the very start.

“We would have liked to win the first match, because we would have broken another record,” he admitted. “But we're in fantastic form, both in terms of our football and our physical condition.”

The message was clear: this run is no fairy tale. It is the product of structure, coaching and a group that has bought into the grind.

At the summit – but not satisfied

De la Fuente did not disguise his admiration for his players. In his eyes, they now stand at the very top of the international game.

“For me, Spanish footballers are the best at understanding the game in the world, and that's an achievement of Spanish coaches and clubs,” he said. There was no chest-beating, just a firm belief in a system that has taken Spain back to the sport’s sharp end.

Yet he pushed back against any sense that the job is done. The rhetoric around a World Cup final rarely interests him; the process of winning one does.

“We're happy, but we're not satisfied with this,” he stressed. “What's coming is more difficult, and we're eager to play the final.”

Then came the line that summed him up: pragmatic, grounded, almost allergic to the grandiose.

“But the final is meant to be played; I'm not one for literary phrases. How could you not be happy to play in a final! Whether you win it or not... there's an opponent. I greatly value the journey, and that's what makes us very strong and allows us to appreciate what we achieve.”

A call from the King, a country on edge

If anyone needed a reminder of the scale of Spain’s achievement, it arrived via phone. King Felipe VI called the dressing room to congratulate the squad and staff, a gesture that underlined how far this team has carried the country in a few intense weeks.

“It is a great honor that our king calls us, cares about us, and constantly encourages us,” De la Fuente said. “To be the architects of the joy of a country so devoted in the streets, with a generation that has a commendable attitude. Let's enjoy it, the hardest step is still to come, we have to improve and that's what we're working on.”

Spain now wait for their opponent, England or Argentina, with the chance to echo the golden summer of 2010.

Yamal looks ready. Porro faces a race. The rest of Spain is already there, living every step of a journey that has one brutal, beautiful hurdle left.