France star Kylian Mbappé started his first game at the European Championship without a face mask since breaking his nose in his team's opening win against Austria.
Although he set up France's opener early in the match and seemed to play more freely without the mask, Mbappé and Les Bleus could not overcome Spain and saw their Euro journey come to an end at the semifinal stage with a 2-1 defeat.
While Mbappé was among the starters for Didier Deschamps on Tuesday, Antoine Griezmann was left on the bench and Randall Kolo Muani started in the front line.
Adrien Rabiot returned from suspension, with Eduardo Camavinga dropping back to the bench in the only other change from the quarterfinal against Portugal, that France won on penalties after the match ended 0-0.
Spain coach Luis de la Fuente was forced to change his usual formation for the semifinal with a number of players suspended or injured.
Spain paid the price for their dramatic win over Germany and defenders Dani Carvajal and Robin le Normand were suspended and replaced by Jesús Navas and Nacho, who will be tasked with marking Mbappé.
Midfielder Pedri was forced off in the eighth minute against Germany with a knee injury following a hefty challenge from Toni Kroos and has been ruled out of the rest of Euro 2024. He has been replaced by Dani Olmo -- who came on for the 21-year-old and went on to score the opener as well as set up Mikel Merino's winner in the last minute of extra time.
The only time De la Fuente had changed his starting lineup was when he sat key players like Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams for Spain's final group game, a 1-0 win against Albania.
Spain will play the winner of the other semifinal between England or the Netherlands in the final on Sunday in Berlin.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.