Belgium coach Rudi Garcia outfoxed Mauricio Pochettino and came up with a game plan that neutralized a US team that had been flying high.
Luis de la Fuente. Spain's talent is obvious, but the trust is the real story.
Every player seems committed to the same idea: press together, defend together, suffer together and then let the ball do the rest.
With apologies to Thomas Tuchel, the way De la Fuente has gotten full buy-in from his Spain players is truly rare.
It's an incredibly cohesive system, and their commitment to executing the game model helps Spain survive some thorny parts of their matches, as was needed against Portugal.
If only they had a great striker to finish those sequences …
Mohamed Ouahbi.
He had previously been a youth coach, and then managed Morocco's under-20 and under-23 sides, before being promoted to his first job in senior management just four months ago.
But he's shown himself to be canny with a team who have turned over almost two-thirds of their players since the semi-final run in 2022.
He has entered every game with a clear plan, and then it all seems to have panned out the way intended.
Still, France in the quarter-final …
Thomas Tuchel.
Maybe he deserves criticism for the way he sets teams up from the start, but it's been clear against Croatia, against Panama, against DR Congo and against Mexico how his tweaks in-game have had a major positive impact – which is the complete opposite of his predecessor Gareth Southgate.
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Semi-finals and final prediction
Spain 2-1 Argentina. Spain have been quietly impressive throughout despite drawing against Cape Verde in their opening game.
