Spain 2–1 Belgium: Merino's Late Winner Ends Belgium's Golden Generation
By Ali Ammar · goals2026.org
For 46 minutes, Belgium had done the one thing no team had managed all summer: they had scored against Spain. For two more minutes at the end, it looked like it might be enough to force extra time. Then Mikel Merino did what Mikel Merino does, and Spain won 2–1at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles to book a semi-final against France. Belgium's golden generation, in all likelihood, has played its last World Cup match.
The first goal Spain had conceded
Fabián Ruiz opened the scoring in the 30th minute, a clean strike that felt like the start of a routine afternoon. It wasn't. In the 41st, Charles De Ketelaere levelled — and in doing so scored the first goal Spain had conceded in the entire tournament. Five matches, five clean sheets, from a goalless draw with Cape Verde to a 1–0 dismissal of Portugal in the round of 16; Belgium finally breached the wall, and for a while the quarter-final was a genuine contest.
Total control, one nervy hour
The underlying numbers say Spain were never really in danger. They finished with 68% possession, 16 shots to Belgium's five, seven on target to two, and an expected-goals figure of 2.04 to 0.38. This was a siege that happened to have a scare in the middle of it. Belgium defended for their lives — they even turned to Thibaut Courtois from the bench, and the goalkeeper's 7.9 was the highest match rating on the pitch — but a team creating two expected goals against a team creating barely a third of one is only going to be denied for so long.
Lamine Yamal, Rodri, Pedri and Dani Olmo all turned in 7-plus performances, the familiar Spanish midfield metronome grinding Belgium down. The winner, when it came, was almost inevitable in its timing.
Merino, again
In the 88th minute, Mikel Merino arrived in the box to finish it — his second goal of the tournament, and the latest in a growing personal collection of decisive knockout headers and finishes for club and country. Spain have now scored in every match of this World Cup and conceded exactly once. They go to the semi-final unbeaten, and with the meanest defence in the competition intact but for a single De Ketelaere strike.
Belgium's golden generation bows out
For Belgium, this is almost certainly the end of an era. Kevin De Bruyne, withdrawn to an ovation in the 86th minute, Romelu Lukaku, Axel Witsel, Courtois — the core that finished third in 2018 and has chased a trophy for a decade — will mostly be too old for 2030. They leave with real credit: a 5–1 demolition of New Zealand, a comeback win over Senegal, a 4–1 round-of-16 rout of the United States, and here a display of defensive defiance that took the tournament's best team to the 88th minute. De Ketelaere's goal, at least, hints that the next generation will not start from nothing.
France next — and the Golden Boot
Spain's reward is a heavyweight semi-final against France, who dispatched Morocco 2–0, on July 14. Neither side has lost; France have Kylian Mbappé on eight goals, level with Lionel Messi at the top of the Golden Boot race (Erling Haaland is a further one back on seven). Spain have no one in that conversation — Mikel Oyarzabal leads them on four — which tells you exactly how they have reached the last four: not through a single star, but through control, depth and a back line that took five games to concede. See the updated bracket and our AI's refreshed title odds for how the semi-finals shape up.
Match events, ratings and statistics from goals2026.org's live match database, correct as of July 11, 2026.