Cucurella played the full game at left-back and will now hope to follow in the footsteps of Juan Mata and Fernando Torres by winning the Euros with Spain as a Chelsea player. They will take on England or the Netherlands in Sunday’s final.

Tonight France took the lead on eight minutes when a Kylian Mbappe cross was steered into the net by Randal Kolo Muani. It was Didier Deschamps’ side’s first goal from open play at this tournament.

Spain briefly looked rocked and survived a couple of French counter-attacks unscathed, before levelling in spectacular fashion in the 21st minute. A loose ball fell to Lamine Yamal, who cut inside and curled a sumptuous effort in off the post from distance. In the process, the 16-year-old became the youngest goalscorer at a European Championship.

Within four minutes, Spain led. Dani Olmo, in for the injured Pedri, danced into the box and fired a shot past Mike Maignan that hit Jules Kounde and went in. It was eventually given as an Olmo goal.

Spain were the better team for the rest of an exhilarating first half. At the start of the second, a low Cucurella delivery wasn’t far away from finding former Blue Alvaro Morata.

In response, Aurelien Tchouameni and Mbappe had attempts straight at Unai Simon saved, and the Spain keeper did well to palm a dangerous Ousmane Dembele cross to safety. Dembele was the man Cucurella was tasked with keeping quiet down the French right, a challenge he passed with flying colours.

The contest became cagier, understandably, Spain content with their lead. Theo Hernandez blasted a presentable opening over for France with 15 minutes left, and a better chance fell Mbappe’s way five minutes from time, but the new Real Madrid man also missed the target by some distance.

Thereafter Spain comfortably preserved their advantage to advance to their first major tournament final since 2012, when they thrashed Italy 4-0 with Mata and Torres on the scoresheet. Cucurella will now wait to find out if he will be taking on his Chelsea team-mates Cole Palmer and Conor Gallagher on Sunday.