Merino the Match-Winner
It took Mikel Merino all of one minute and fifty-seven seconds to become a World Cup hero. The Spain substitute had barely had time to break a sweat before he was wheeling away in celebration, turning home a spilled rebound in the 88th minute to send Spain past Belgium 2-1 in a thrilling quarter-final at Inglewood's SoFi Stadium. It was the kind of impact substitution managers dream about and opponents dread, and it booked Spain a mouthwatering semi-final date with France.
A Bounce That Changed Everything
The goal itself had a lovely, chaotic quality to it, the sort of moment that separates the good teams from the great ones. Pau Cubarsí, more renowned for his composure at the back than his finishing, let fly with a shot that Belgium substitute goalkeeper Senne Lammens could only push back into the danger zone. Merino, freshly introduced and clearly in the mood, did not need a second invitation. It was Spain's second goal to arrive via exactly that kind of scramble, underlining just how relentlessly Spain had camped in Belgian territory. The numbers backed up the eye test: Spain finished with 19 shots to Belgium's five, 68 percent of the possession, and an expected-goals tally of 1.96 against Belgium's 0.34. This was one-way traffic for long stretches, even if the scoreline stayed nervy until the very end.
De Ketelaere Keeps Belgian Dreams Alive, Briefly
Belgium, for their part, refused to simply roll over. Fabián Ruiz had given Spain the lead in the 30th minute, only for Charles De Ketelaere to drag his side level eleven minutes later, momentarily silencing the pockets of red in the stadium and giving Belgium's traveling support genuine hope of an upset. For a while it looked like backs-to-the-wall Belgium, so often the tournament's great counter-attacking nuisance, might nick something from a game they were being comprehensively outplayed in. Belgium defended with real courage in the second half, throwing bodies in front of shots and scrapping for every second ball, and it was that resilience that made Merino's late intervention feel less like a formality and more like a release valve for a Spanish crowd who had grown increasingly restless waiting for the breakthrough.
Business Left Unfinished for Belgium, Business Just Beginning for Spain
The closing stages had needle to them too. Belgium's Axel Witsel and Spain's Aymeric Laporte both picked up yellow cards deep into stoppage time as frustration and adrenaline boiled over, a fittingly feisty coda to a quarter-final that had been simmering all afternoon. Referee Michael Oliver kept things largely under control throughout, letting the game breathe while stepping in when tempers flared at the death. For Belgium, it is another agonizingly close call at a major tournament, a golden generation that keeps knocking on the door of the very top without quite kicking it open. For Spain, though, the mood is nothing but buoyant. A squad brimming with confidence now turns its attention to a heavyweight semi-final against France. Two of the tournament's most fluent, watchable sides going head to head for a place in the final is about as good as the last four gets, and after a night in Inglewood defined by a super-sub's lightning-fast impact, nobody in Spanish red will want to hear the word "bench" used as an insult ever again.