On Friday in Los Angeles, Spain extended its fantastic record against Belgium, leaving it late once again.<\/p>\n
Goals from Fabi\u00e1n Ruiz and a stoppage-time winner from super-sub Mikel Merino secured a 2-1 victory and a place in the 2026 World Cup semifinals. Spain has now gone 12 matches unbeaten against Belgium, including six straight wins with an aggregate score of 14\u20131.<\/p>\n
It is also unbeaten in 35 matches in all competitions, matching its longest ever streak.<\/p>\n
For Belgium, the odds were always against Rudi Garcia\u2019s side due to some notable injuries, including goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois having to leave the match with an apparent leg injury. The Red Devils did deliver a physical and inspiring encounter, pushing their opponent and even scoring, which was the first time Spain had conceded at the World Cup. In fact, it was the first World Cup goal it had conceded in 649 minutes.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, it’s Spain in the semifinals, its first such appearance at the World Cup since 2010 \u2014 when La Roja won it all.<\/p>\n
Here are my takeaways from Spain’s World Cup quarterfinal win over Belgium.<\/p>\n
It took the Arsenal midfielder six minutes to score the winner in stoppage time against Portugal in the round of 16, but he apparently thought that took too long. So, on Friday, he did it again in just less than two minutes.<\/p>\n
Mikel Merino celebrates his late winner against Belgium at Los Angeles Stadium. (David Ramos\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n It was just another example of Merino\u2019s incredible ability to secure winners \u2014 for club and country \u2014 when they needed him the most.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s also important to remember that the 30-year-old is not a striker, but Luis de la Fuente, just like Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, knows too well the poaching and scoring threat he can introduce to any match.<\/p>\n When it rains, it pours. For Belgium, the issues started before kickoff as midfielder Amadou Onana\u2019s ACL injury was already going to be a problem for Garcia\u2019s midfield needs. But then, his Aston Villa teammate Youri Tielemans also suffered a knock in the warm-up, so now the Red Devils had massive roles to cover in the center of the pitch.<\/p>\n And against Spain, who possess a starting midfield potency of Manchester City\u2019s Rodri, PSG\u2019s Fabi\u00e1n Ruiz and Barcelona\u2019s Dani Olmo, not having Tielemans was a huge blow. \u00a0<\/p>\n Consequently, as Belgium kept fighting, its goalkeeper, arguably the best in the game, Real Madrid star Courtois, had to come off in the 71st minute. Things were just not going to get easier for the Red Devils.<\/p>\n It was forced to play a very direct, counter-attacking match, and it was actually a great strategy against Spain. It even kept it at 1-1 until Merino popped up in the right place at the right time. Still, the likes of Belgium defenders Nathan Ngoy and Brandon Mechele had their best performances.<\/p>\n We are usually familiar with Doku\u2019s work on the ball and ability to terrorize defenders, but Friday’s performance was about more than just that. The Premier League star had to play an extra role in helping his teammates, especially left back Maxim De Cuyper, in completing the daunting task of slowing down Yamal on Spain’s right wing.<\/p>\n Lamine Yamal still only has one World Cup goal and no assists at this tournament after Spain’s win over Belgium. (Omar Vega\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY On Friday in Los Angeles, Spain extended its fantastic record against Belgium, leaving it late once again. Goals from Fabi\u00e1n Ruiz and a stoppage-time winner from super-sub Mikel Merino secured a 2-1 victory and a place in the 2026 World Cup semifinals. Spain has now gone 12 matches unbeaten against Belgium, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}