World Cup 2026: Spain reaches semifinals with late 2-1 win over Belgium

Spain reached the 2026 World Cup quarter-finals in football with a late 2-1 victory over Belgium on Friday in Los Angeles.

At the magnificent SoFi Stadium, in front of 70,000 spectators, European champions Fabian Ruiz (30) and substitute Mikel Merino (88) scored for Spain, while Charles De Ketelaere scored for Belgium. Spain set up a fiery quarter-final clash with France, who defeated Morocco 2-0 on Tuesday in Dallas.

This is Spain’s first appearance in the World Cup semi-finals since the 2010 edition, when they won their only title in history.

The quarter-finals conclude on Saturday with two matches: England versus Norway in Miami, and defending champions Argentina against Switzerland in Kansas.

Spain had to wait until the final moments to eliminate their neighbor Portugal in the round of 16, after Merino came on as a substitute and scored the only goal of the match in stoppage time of the second half. He repeated his feat by scoring the winning goal just two minutes after coming on.

Earlier, Spain topped their group with a 0-0 draw against Cape Verde, a 4-0 win over Saudi Arabia, and a 1-0 victory against Uruguay, before easily defeating Austria 3-0 in the round of 32.

Belgium, meanwhile, produced their best performance of the tournament in the round of 16, thrashing host nation the United States 4-1 in Seattle.

Before that, the team managed by French coach Rudi Garcia drew 1-1 with Egypt in their opening match, then 0-0 with Iran, before securing qualification with a convincing 5-1 win over New Zealand.

In the round of 32, they staged one of the greatest comebacks in tournament history, having trailed Senegal 2-0 until the 86th minute, before overturning the deficit to win 3-2 after extra time.