{"id":3554,"date":"2026-07-12T18:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3554"},"modified":"2026-07-12T18:02:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:02:02","slug":"merino-strikes-late-as-spain-beats-belgium-2-1-to-set-up-france-semifinal-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3554","title":{"rendered":"Merino strikes late as Spain beats Belgium 2-1 to set up France semifinal clash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Super sub Mikel Merino broke Belgian hearts and sent Spain through to a World Cup semifinal against France with a late goal in a gripping 2-1 win on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The stunning finish at SoFi Stadium sets up a tantalizing showdown between European champions Spain and the tournament favorites France and the red-hot Kylian Mbappe in Dallas on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Burna Boy - Higher [Official Music Video]\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eKzmRnetw-c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But it was heartbreak for Belgium&#8217;s substitute goalkeeper Senne Lammens, sent on late, who spilled a shot into the path of Merino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The dramatic finale came after Fabian Ruiz had opened the scoring for Spain, before Charles De Ketelaere grabbed one back for Belgium against the run of play before halftime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Welcoming Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku back to the starting XI, Belgium were rocked by a hamstring injury during the warm-ups to captain Youri Tielemans that hit them hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Having already lost Amadou Onana to a ruptured ACL, the Red Devils would have to play a near second-choice midfield against the Spanish possession masters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ruiz, brought in for Pedri, wasted no time combining with Rodri to dominate the ball and Barcelona&#8217;s teen sensation Lamine Yamal curled an early shot just wide of the far post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But opposing winger Doku was bright for Belgium, cutting in from the left to feed De Ketelaere, the striker fresh from his brace against the United States on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, it was Spain who struck first. On the half-hour mark, Pedro Porro played a sharp one-two with Lamine Yamal before expertly cutting it back from near the byline to Dani Olmo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Olmo&#8217;s shot was parried by Thibaut Courtois, but fell to Ruiz, who fired it home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Suddenly it was all Spain. They pinged passes around the Belgian half as though this World Cup quarter-final was a training exercise, laid on for an A-list crowd featuring Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz and Noel Gallagher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Belgium, having fought back astonishingly late from 2-0 down in the round-of-32 to dispatch Senegal, did not panic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They grabbed one back in the 41st minute. De Bruyne slid a through ball wide to Timothy Castagne. His cross found De Ketelaere, who perfectly timed his run and outmuscled Barcelona youngster Pau Cubarsi to head home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was the first goal Spain had conceded this World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Improbably, Belgium almost grabbed another before half-time. Breaking from a Spain corner, De Ketelaere&#8217;s pass to a totally clear Doku was barely intercepted by Olmo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yamal grew into the game after the break, nearly finding Mikel Oyarzabal with an incisive cross that was well blocked by a charging Courtois. <a href=\"https:\/\/japantoday.com\/category\/2026-fifa-world-cup\/merino-strikes-late-as-spain-beat-belgium-to-set-up-france-world-cup-semi\">(JapanToday)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Super sub Mikel Merino broke Belgian hearts and sent Spain through to a World Cup semifinal against France with a late goal in a gripping 2-1 win on Friday. The stunning finish at SoFi Stadium sets up a tantalizing showdown between European champions Spain and the tournament favorites France and the red-hot Kylian Mbappe in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[419,1458,3628,287,3642,3043,285,2379,3641,284,57],"class_list":["post-3554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-2026-fifa-world-cup","tag-belgium","tag-charles-de-ketelaere","tag-france","tag-kevin-de-bruyne","tag-kylian-mbappe-2","tag-lamine-yamal","tag-mikel-merino","tag-senne-lammens","tag-spain","tag-united-states"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Merino strikes late as Spain beats Belgium 2-1 to set up France semifinal clash - Tona Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Super sub Mikel Merino broke Belgian hearts and sent Spain through to a World Cup semifinal against France with a late goal in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3554\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Merino strikes late as Spain beats Belgium 2-1 to set up France semifinal clash - 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