Two semifinals, two host cities, one 24-hour stretch that decides who plays for the World Cup. France meets Spain at 3:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 14, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and England meets Argentina at 3:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, July 15, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Both matches air on FOX with Telemundo carrying Spanish-language coverage, and both stream live on FOX One and Peacock for anyone watching outside a traditional cable setup. Here is the full how-to-watch and storyline breakdown for both semifinals — no predictions, just everything worth knowing before kickoff.
France vs. Spain: Arlington Sets the Stage
AT&T Stadium has hosted nine World Cup matches this summer, more than any other U.S. venue, and Tuesday’s semifinal is the biggest of them. For fans without tickets, the FIFA Fan Festival at Fair Park has been the free alternative all tournament — giant screens, international food vendors, and a direct DART Green Line connection that makes it the rare fan zone in the Dallas-Arlington area you can actually reach by rail. If you’re headed to the stadium itself, arrive early: AT&T Stadium enforces a strict clear-bag policy and runs cashless entry.
Didier Deschamps’ France has been the tournament’s most efficient team, going a perfect 6-0 through six matches. Les Bleus won Group I by beating Senegal 3-1, Iraq 3-0, and Norway 4-1, then rolled through the knockout rounds with a 3-0 win over Sweden, a 1-0 win over Paraguay, and a 2-0 quarterfinal win over Morocco behind goals from Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele. Only one goal has beaten French goalkeeping all tournament. Mbappe leads the field with 8 goals and is tied for the Golden Boot race, chasing a shot at becoming the second player after Pele to win multiple World Cups before turning 27. Michael Olise has been just as vital with a tournament-high 6 assists — one shy of Pele’s all-time single-World Cup mark — while Dembele has added 5 goals and 2 assists. William Saliba and Dayot Upamecano anchor the backline behind that one-goal-conceded number.
Spain’s route has been considerably tighter. Luis de la Fuente’s side drew 0-0 with Cape Verde in Group H before beating Saudi Arabia 4-0 and Uruguay 1-0, then rolled past Austria 3-0 in the Round of 32. The knockouts turned into late drama: a 1-0 win over Portugal and a 2-1 win over Belgium, both decided by substitute Mikel Merino — the first player in World Cup history to score the winning goal in two consecutive knockout matches off the bench, including an 88th-minute strike against Belgium. Beyond Merino’s heroics, Pedri and Rodri have controlled midfield tempo throughout, while Lamine Yamal — so dynamic at Euro 2024 and in the Nations League — has been quieter this tournament, with just a single goal against Saudi Arabia in the group stage.
The history between these two sides adds intrigue: France and Spain have met 38 times, with Spain holding an 18-13 edge (7 draws) and a 71-44 scoring advantage across the full series. Remarkably, they’ve only met once before at a World Cup — France won 3-1 in the 2006 Round of 16 — but recent form favors Spain, who beat France 5-4 in the 2025 UEFA Nations League semifinal and 2-1 in the Euro 2024 semifinal.
England vs. Argentina: Atlanta’s Turn
One day later, the World Cup shifts to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, officially “Atlanta Stadium” under FIFA’s tournament branding — though the massive Mercedes-Benz logo on the retractable roof remains visible, since covering it risked damaging the roof structure. Atlanta’s FIFA Fan Festival at Centennial Olympic Park has been the most attended fan zone of any U.S. host city, reportedly drawing more than 270,000 visitors in the tournament’s first 10 days alone and hitting capacity outright for marquee group games. It’s an easy walk from the stadium and served directly by MARTA, which has been running trains at five-minute frequency on match days.
Thomas Tuchel’s England arrives unbeaten, with five wins and a draw. The group stage brought a 4-2 win over Croatia, a scoreless draw with Ghana, and a 2-0 win over Panama, before knockout wins over DR Congo (2-1), Mexico (3-2), and Norway (2-1 in extra time). That Norway match has become the defining moment of England’s tournament: Jude Bellingham equalized in first-half stoppage time and then scored the extra-time winner, giving him six goals for the tournament — tied with captain Harry Kane, also on six. Anthony Gordon has been England’s primary creative outlet, Declan Rice and Elliot Anderson have controlled midfield, and Jordan Pickford has come up with several key saves in the knockout rounds behind a defense built around Marc Guehi, Ezri Konsa, and Reece James.
Argentina’s path has been just as eventful. Lionel Scaloni’s side finished Group J with a perfect record — wins over Algeria, Austria, and Jordan, scoring 8 goals and conceding just 1 — before needing extra time to beat World Cup debutants Cape Verde 3-2 in the Round of 32. The Round of 16 brought a comeback from 2-0 down to beat Egypt 3-2, sealed by Julian Alvarez, and the quarterfinal against Switzerland went to extra time again: 1-1 after 90 minutes, then a curling Alvarez go-ahead goal and a Lautaro Martinez finish sealed a 3-1 win. This is Argentina’s sixth World Cup semifinal appearance in program history — they’ve advanced to the final in all five previous trips. Lionel Messi has scored in every knockout match this tournament, his 8 goals tying him with Mbappe atop the Golden Boot race, while Lautaro Martinez arrives off a 22-goal season for Inter Milan and Emiliano Martinez, a two-time Yashin Trophy winner as the sport’s top goalkeeper, has built a reputation for exactly the kind of knockout-stage penalty heroics this matchup could come down to. Cristian Romero and Lisandro Martinez anchor the back line in front of him.
What makes this one especially notable: England and Argentina haven’t met in 21 years, making Wednesday’s semifinal a genuine renewal of one of the sport’s most storied rivalries after two full decades apart.
Watching Both Nights as a Neutral
France-Spain pairs a team that has barely broken a sweat against one that has needed a bench player’s improbable heroics twice in a row just to survive — while a head-to-head history that favors Spain in recent meetings adds weight to every moment on the pitch. England-Argentina, meanwhile, brings together two teams that both needed extra time or a comeback to escape their quarterfinals, setting up a collision between Bellingham’s knack for the late goal and an Argentina side that has repeatedly needed exactly that same kind of moment to advance.
Whether you’re tracking the latest odds on both semifinals, browsing DraftKings promo code offers, or comparing a FanDuel promo code against a BetMGM promotion before kickoff, both nights have the makings of the kind of tension-filled football that has defined this knockout stage from the start. Two host cities, two contrasting styles on each side of the bracket, and four teams that have all found different ways to make it this far — Tuesday and Wednesday close out the road to the July 19 final at MetLife Stadium.
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