The surprising defeat makes the defending champions' route to the semi-finals much more complex, and a lot now depends on what happens between Germany and Denmark in the last match of the day.
Ian Barrufet was named Player of the Match. The 21-year-old left wing had an outstanding match, scoring 10 goals from 11 attempts, and played almost the entire game. France's leading goal scorer was also a wing, Aymeric Minne, with seven goals.
Sergey Hernández made 14 saves (33 per cent), his best showing yet; Rémi Desbonnet had an excellent second half with nine saves (36 per cent).
Les Bleus couldn’t find their rhythm, were forced into making difficult shots and constantly chased the scoreline. It was far from the French team that dominated Portugal on Saturday.
France struggled to contain the threat of Spain's key player Ian Barrufet who was outstanding, scoring no fewer than 7 goals in the first half alone, and France had no answers, making rookie mistakes and letting Spain dictate the play.
Rémi Desbonnet in the French goal raised his game in the second half making a string of important saves. Les Bleus reduced the Spanish lead to just one goal and seemed to have turned the momentum, but then they collapsed again for no apparent reason.
Suddenly, they fell back into bad habits, lost far too many balls, and Sergey Hernández did the rest in the Spanish goal.