There was a sense of deja vu as Argentina came from behind to win an intense semi-final. But the players also gave the nation some memorable highs

Historically, English football-supporting culture has had a well-known darker side. But in recent decades, as the England men’s team’s trophy drought has continued, some of its unofficial anthems have acquired an endearingly melancholy quality. “It was nearly complete, it was nearly so sweet”, as the Three Lions song had it in the 1990s, when England exited a World Cup and a European Championship at the semi-final stage.

This summer, Oasis’s Wonderwall has been the soundtrack as Harry Kane and co progressed to Wednesday’s climactic semi-final showdown with Argentina. This is a song which, very wisely in an England context, puts a heavy emphasis on the idea of “maybe”. In the end it turned out to be maybe not.

1,500 British and French troops will deploy to Poland in September for the first joint exercises of the Coalition of the Willing, Poland's Deputy Defense Minister Paweł Bejda said on TVP Info. The maneuvers will focus on moving troops and equipment at scale—transport and logistics, not combat.

"We are preparing for operations connected with the transfer and transport of forces. We want to show that we know how to do this," Bejda said.

The Coalition of the Willing was formed in March 2025 as a European-led framework to guarantee Ukraine's security after any ceasefire, and it has spent more than a year turning pledges into forces it can actually send. By April 2025, only six of 30 member countries had committed troops. British military planners floated a 64,000-strong force. European ministers doubted they could muster even 25,000. The September exercise puts the coalition's central promise—that Britain and France can lead a credible multinational force—to its first test with troops on the ground rather than in a communiqué.

Why logistics is the real test

Since Russia's full-scale war, Poland has handled 95% of allied military aid transiting to Ukraine, Bejda noted. The September drills rehearse that same task: moving forces and equipment through the corridor a security-guarantee force would rely on.

Poland's Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said the country is becoming the site of Europe's most important military exercises. Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk said the maneuvers would prepare the coalition for "real security guarantees for Ukraine, but also for the region."

What still isn't resolved

In February 2026, British and French paratroopers rehearsed rapid Ukraine deployment in Exercise Orion. Days earlier, a growing number of coalition members had privately conceded their troop contributions depended on Moscow's approval—effectively handing President of Russia Vladimir Putin a veto over the force meant to deter him.

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Spain grandly swatted aside strangely subdued France to reach Sunday’s final

France and Spain have only met once before at the World Cup. That was 20 years ago, back in the day when Les Bleus very much had La Roja’s number (the Euro 84 final, the Euro 2000 quarters, all that).

Spain have had the better of the tournament football since. Wins in the Euro 2012 quarters and the Euro 2024 semis, plus an absurd 5-4 victory in last year’s Nations League semis. France did win the 2021 Nations League final, though.

[L'article Les Européens renforcent leur soutien à l’Ukraine  a d'abord été publié dans InfoBref.]

Ukrainian pilots will co-pilot French Mirage 2000B fighter jets in the Bastille Day parade flyover. 25 Ukrainian troops will also march at France's 14 July national holiday parade on the Champs-Élysées alongside French forces and representatives of 34 other Coalition of the Willing countries, in Ukraine's first participation in France's Bastille Day parade, Ukrinform reports. 

The parade opens with Patrouille de France accompanied by two French Mirage 2000B two-seaters. French pilots will fly the aircraft, but Ukrainian pilots trained in France will serve as co-pilots.

The Mirage 2000B jets used in the flyover are the same aircraft Ukrainian pilots trained on. Ukraine's Air Force reported near-perfect 98 percent effectiveness of its Mirage 2000s against Russian drones and missiles in November 2025, per Euromaidan Press. The Mirage's Magic 2 missile achieved nearly 100 percent success against aerial targets.

The Bastille Day appearance sits within a growing Franco-Ukrainian air cooperation. France delivered the first Mirage 2000-5F to Ukraine in February 2025 and, by early 2026, was considering transferring all 26 of its Mirage 2000 aircraft to Ukraine.

Ukrainian pilots trained at the Nancy and Cazaux air bases in France for approximately six months on two-seater Mirage 2000B trainers before transitioning to the single-seat combat Mirage 2000-5F.

Ukraine gets maximum foreign quota with 25 servicemembers

Ukrainian Senior Lieutenant Yaroslav says the participation is a great honor and responsibility, and an opportunity to represent the Ukrainian people and Armed Forces marching alongside the troops of other states. He said Ukrainian troops are marching for those on the front line and in memory of those killed in combat.

"Because thanks to their courage, Ukraine continues to fight, so we march for everyone who is now on the front line. And in memory of those who fell in battle. And we remember every hero," Yaroslav says.

Preparation for the parade lasted several weeks. Every day, participants worked on a drill step to demonstrate military discipline. The final rehearsal on 11 July specifically tested whether the orchestra's march would remain audible during the fighter jet flyover above Paris.

Ukrainian troops will close the international section of the parade opening. Coalition of the Willing forces will march in a pedestrian formation, with 503 service members in total in the international contingent.

Coalition of the Willing gathers 35 countries at the parade

The Coalition of the Willing is a European planning body established to develop security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of a potential ceasefire. Ukraine, plus 34 other coalition countries, will be represented at the Bastille Day parade.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be on the presidential tribune alongside other heads of state and government. Almost 6,700 military personnel will march down the Champs-Élysées on 14 July. According to French officials, this is the largest number of participants in the parade's history.

Poland holds credible information that Russia is again planning provocations, and it is publicizing that fact to stop Moscow from acting, Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said in Warsaw, Polish broadcaster RMF24 reported. Speaking alongside his French counterpart on 9 July, he set the intelligence against a long list of Russian covert operations across Europe. Sikorski framed exposure as a weapon that has worked against the Kremlin before.

"The Russians are again planning something"

Sikorski and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot faced questions about recent media reports, including in the Washington Post, that Russia is actively considering attacks on NATO targets and that the US has warned allies. Sikorski declined to comment on what intelligence services say. Poland's deputy prime minister, he still left no doubt about the broader picture.

"But the fact that Russia is waging a hybrid and kinetic war against both France and Poland is no secret," he said.

Sikorski added:

"That the Russians attack our systems of party competition, our critical infrastructure, or use shadow-fleet ships to map critical infrastructure — all of this is known. But also arson, attacks on rail tracks, drone attacks, and sending death squads to kill Vladimir Putin's enemies — all of these are hostile activities. We do nothing of the sort in Russia." 

Explore further

Polish FM warns Putin’s retaliatory rhetoric sounds like “an announcement of a provocation”

The 2022 precedent: exposure works

Sikorski recalled that before invading Ukraine, Russia intended to stage classic false-flag provocations to hand itself a pretext for the attack. 

"Back then, the services of the United States warned about this, and that deterred Russia from carrying out those provocations," he said.

The same logic drives today's disclosure: "The aim of these warnings is to deter them from carrying out these provocations. And may it be so," Sikorski told a journalist. 

He aired a similar caution in June, saying the Kremlin could stage a false-flag operation within the next two years.

The plane that French team used after match with Paraguay flew 44 deportation-related flights this year alone

The French men’s national soccer team, whose star Kylian Mbappé is one of the world’s most outspoken athletes against far-right politicians, has been using a charter airplane company that is at the heart of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.

Images of the team posted on social media and flight tracking data show the French team have used Global Crossing Airlines (GlobalX) for at least three domestic flights between their World Cup games and base camp in Boston. That same airline charter company has operated more than half of ICE’s removal flights in 2024 and 2025.

With the World Cup down to eight teams, our writers assess who’s left, identify the biggest remaining threats to France and make calls on who will lift the trophy

Lionel Messi. As he proved in thrilling style against Egypt, Argentina’s No 10 still has magic in his boots even at the age of 39. While his penalty record of four from eight attempts is much worse than you’d expect, he is clinical when it matters most. EA

Who is winning the battle to be top scorer at the World Cup? Live and updated throughout the tournament

All-time World Cup goalscorers

The Golden Boot is awarded to the World Cup’s top goalscorer, with assists used as a tie-breaker if two or more players finish level. The 2026 tournament has three former Golden Boot winners taking part: Kylian Mbappé of France (eight goals in 2022), England’s Harry Kane (six goals in 2018) and James Rodríguez of Colombia (six goals in 2014).

Mbappé and Kane are among the pre-tournament favourites to finish top scorer in North America, alongside Norway’s Erling Haaland – making his World Cup debut – and Argentina’s Lionel Messi.