Yevgeniy Levchenko: "I would like to see Spain still pass these French, who crawled through to the semifinals of the Euros"

Former Ukraine midfielder Yevhen Levchenko told what he expects from the match of 1/2 finals of Euro-2024 Spain - France.

"Spain is such an example of how soccer should be played. If you look at France or England, they are such an example of how to play anti-football. I would like Spain to pass these French. Because the French, let's be frank, have not yet shown the soccer that we expect from them. But they pragmatically, just like the English, go to another round. And they crawled through this European Championship, I would say. The Spaniards showed very classy soccer and played with confidence.

If you look at the French - with Mbappe, with Thuram, with Griezmann, with Rabiot, from Kante - this is a team that did not show something extraordinary. But that's soccer. Something can change in every game here. We know that France's players can easily switch and turn on the speed and be in very good shape.

I wouldn't say it will be some unremarkable match, but I would like to see France play more forward and not be as pragmatic as we see now. Such a pale shadow of Mbappe... I'd like to see him resurrected a bit and play the kind of soccer we've seen throughout the French championship.

It will be such a more or less even match. And I have a lot of respect for this Spain playing soccer with a very confident Yamal and a very well played Williams. I really liked the way they interact, the way Rodri plays in the center of the field. Because, let's be honest, I like this Spain more. And I have a lot of respect for this team for the soccer they show.

I do not think that there will be a large number of goals in the match. But I think that in this game one goal, one mistake can decide the fate of the match. So hopefully it will be an interesting match. But it seems to me that everybody will play very carefully and not leave any space so that there will not be such holes. There will be a small result, maybe a one goal difference, and there could be extra time and a penalty shootout. So it's hard to say," Levchenko said.