Spain 2-1 Belgium: Merino punishes Lammens error to tee up semi-final showdown with France

Mikel Merino was the hero once again for Spain as his 88th-minute goal clinched a 2-1 victory over Belgium in Los Angeles and booked their ticket to the World Cup semi-finals.

Match Report 

Fabian Ruiz put Luis de la Fuente's side in front after half an hour, having been promoted to the starting lineup in place of Pedri, though Charles De Ketelaere became the first player to score against Spain at this tournament late in the first half.

It looked as though extra time would be required as Belgium produced a resolute defensive performance, but an injury to Thibaut Courtois in the second half proved costly. 

Manchester United's Senne Lammens replaced Courtois and was at fault for the decisive goal, spilling Pau Cubarsi's drive at the feet of the grateful Merino, who made no mistake to ensure Spain will face France in a semi-final showdown on Tuesday.

Belgium suffered a blow even before kick-off as captain Youri Tielemans was injured in the warm-up, with the returning Kevin De Bruyne taking the armband. 

Rudi Garcia's team defended well early on, but their resistance was broken by Fabian, who finished on the follow-up – via a deflection off Timothy Castagne – after Courtois made a strong save to deny Dani Olmo.

Having been involved in the build-up to that goal, Lamine Yamal then started to come to the fore, working Courtois from a dangerous free-kick and curling another attempt wide of the near post.

But De Ketelaere struck against the run of play four minutes before half-time, getting across Pau Cubarsi to nod Castagne's right-wing beyond Unai Simon.

Maxim De Cuyper lashed into the side netting as Belgium's confidence continued to grow at the start of the second half, but they received another setback when Courtois – having denied Mikel Oyarzabal at his near post – sustained an apparent thigh injury and went off in tears.

And Lammens' unfortunate moment came with stoppage time looming, as Cubarsi's 20-yard drive proved too hot to handle and Spain substitute Merino fired into the roof of the net.

Merino reprises super-sub role

There have only been two examples of a Spain player scoring the winning goal in a World Cup knockout-stage match after coming on as a substitute.

Both have come this week, with Merino coming off the bench to provide the heroics versus Portugal in the round of 16 before repeating the trick here. The Arsenal man is also the first Spain player to score two winning goals in the 80th minute or later in World Cup matches.

Belgium were ultimately left to rue the loss of Courtois to injury, as Lammens became the first goalkeeper other than the Real Madrid man to represent them at a World Cup since Geert De Vlieger against Brazil in 2002, but marked the occasion with a costly error.

Ultimately, Spain will argue they deserved their piece of good fortune, having racked up 17 shots and 2.08 expected goals, compared to Belgium's five attempts and 0.37 xG.

Belgium did have a few promising moments on the counter-attack, however, after becoming the first team to breach Spain's defence in a World Cup match since La Roja lost 2-1 to Japan in the 2022 group stage. Their run of six straight clean sheets at the competition was the best-ever by any team, with their defence standing firm for 649 minutes.

Under De la Fuente, Spain have now progressed from all seven of their knockout games at major tournament (World Cup/Euros). The only manager to ever progress from their first eight such ties with a European nation is Vittorio Pozzo, who won his first eight with Italy between 1934 and 1938.

Line-ups

Spain XI: Laporte, Unai Simón, Cucurella, Fabian Ruiz, Oyarzabal, Olmo, Rodri, Álex Baena, Porro, Yamal, Cubarsi

Subs: Grimaldo, Iglesias, Llorente, David Raya, Merino, Ferran Torres, Eric Garcia, Martín Zubimendi, Yeremy, Pedri, Joan García, Nico Williams, Marc Pubill, Gavi, Víctor Muñoz

Belgium XI: Courtois, De Bruyne, Vanaken, Trossard, Mechele, Castagne, Nicolas Raskin, Maxim De Cuyper, De Ketelaere, Doku, Nathan Ngoy

Subs: Witsel, Lukaku, Meunier, Dodi Lukébakio, Alexis Saelemaekers, Senne Lammens, Koni De Winter, Arthur Theate, Diego Moreira, Matias Fernandez-Pardo, Mike Penders, Joaquin Seys